._Storei's Raevan

[Storei]

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. | T . h . a. n . k . Y . o . u | .

Kyou
Silveh
Tsu
Chloe
Julian
And all the raevan owners and thread regulars!

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[Storei]

Storei

Isikoirin looked dumbfounded. He stared blankly at the white washed walls of the lab building and then let his gray eyes graze back down at the hastily scribbled directions that his grandmother Old Maasi had wrote on the back of a grocery reciept. Cursing softly underneath his breath and giving a shake to his white-highlighted brown hair, Isi crumpled the piece of recycled paper in his hand and began to hobbed forward on his crutch, muttering all the meanwhile, "Old Maasi knows she can't write for beans because her hand shakes so darn much, so why didn't she bother just to tell me the directions!? This better be the right place."

The young boy known as Isi stuffed the crumped piece of paper angrily into his green coat pocket and buried his face into the fuzz of his fur-lined collar. Keeping his stormy gray eyes focused on the glass doors of the building before him, he huffed a sigh of annoyance and continued onwards. He was a regular sized boy, with a regular sized temper and a irregular weak right leg. This weak leg was cause for the crutch he carried around, and without it he would hardly be able to walk a few paces. So, when he wasn't at home with the luxury of his wheelchair, Isi made his way around with his crutch.

Hobbling up to the automatic glass doors, he passed through them, into the warm air and out of the chilly morning fog.

Isi was sent here by his grandmother who said that there was a surprise waiting for him in Lab 305. The slightly pointed-ear boy was excited to hear that! He had been following the news and events of the Lab for over a year now, and he was very interested in what they had to offer. A raevan, an experiment of age-long priceless articles come to life! Obviously, Isi knew what the surprise was...And yet he didn't. There were two new additions to the collection that were being sent out to homes but he had no clue about what they were. Well, when he got inside, he'll find out! As he took hobbled step after hobbled step, deeper into the white welcome room of the Lab, Isi could feel his frustration melt away into awe and excitement.

Asahi Kumoru

Kumoru half-lead, half-dragged his adopted daughter Serif up to the doors of the building Project [x] shared with Lab 305. He had not been here in quite some time, but he had been able to remember the directions well enough.

Serif toddled along beside Kumoru, her toes turned in to deliberately make her walk look awkward. She was admittedly kind of interested in visiting this laboratory where she had been born, but she felt like giving her father trouble to get here anyway. She babbled nonsensical protests, though she was looking a bit too far beyond the toddler stage to not know how to speak. As soon as she and Kumoru passed through the sliding glass doors, however, Serif actually shut up for a change, and peered about in wonder at the largely empty room that now surrounded her.

Thankful that the girl had stopped her chattering, Kumoru wondered if the silence had been brought on by her remembering the place somehow. It had been a while since he had brought her home from here, from her pod.

There was only one other person in the room as far as the mage could see upon entering, though, and it was someone he did not realize. Letting Serif's hand go so she would stop acting like he was torturing her by holding it, Kumoru walked over to the stranger.

"Hello, there," he said lightly in greeting, steping up to stand beside him and leaning forward a little, as though trying to catch a glimpse of the person's face.

Storei

What was that!? Isi was just day-dreaming about the wonders and adventures soon to come with this 'gift' when he heard somewhere in the back of his mind, a faint greeting. The first thing that came to his mind was that the owners of Lab 305 could speak telepathically. The next thing that came to his mind was his coincience. Out of the two, the latter seemed the most probable.

Startled by the 'voice of his coincience', Isi gave a loud yell and spun about with his crutch raised high over Kumoru's head. The crutch came so close to hitting itself upside the newcomer's head that it gave a breeze to the man's hair, flipping his bangs into an awkward position. If he had been more intent on attacking the person, Isi would've hit full on in the side of the skull. However, he was too distracted by the wonders the office to really focus on the potential danger behind him. Ever since he had been living with his adopted grandmother, Isi had learned to attack anything unexpected.

Isi spun about awkwardly for several moments, arms reeling and breath held as he fought desperately for his balance. When he finally managed to get his crutch back underneath his arm, Isi turned a half-apologetic half-annoyed gaze onto the mage before him, "Halloa, sorry about that...I wasn't suspecting anybody to come up behind me." Isi gave an embarrased nervous chuckle and quickly tried to change the subject, "So...Are you here to pick up a new family member too?"

Asahi Kumoru

A crutch to the head was about the last thing Kumoru had been expecting - and as the father of the little toddler now running amok around the waiting room, he had learned to expect quite a bit. He ducked to the side and rose an arm to try to block it, the first couple words of a spell slipping reflexively from his mouth before he was even consciously aware of what he was casting.

As the one who had nearly brained him broke off his attack and worked instead to try to get the crutch back where it belonged, Kumoru bit off the spell abruptly and allowed the magic to fade from his lips before he spoke again.

"Sorry for startling you," he said, straightening again and lowering his hand, then raising it again to brush his fingers through his long ponytail. "I thought you had heard me come in. Or at least heard her." Kumoru turned his bright blue gaze briefly to Serif, who was climbing into one of the waiting room chairs and making noises like a tugboat.

He blinked at the mention of a new family member and turned back to the youngster. "... Excuse me? Is that why I am supposed to be here? I just came by with Serif, since she came from Project X and it had been a while since we visited." As far as he could recall, though, the mage had not received any summons, nor had he made any appointments.

Storei

Magic? He had heard about magic before but he had never had been that close to someone who used it. Grinning apologetically and shuffling about awkwardly to turn himself to face the man, the young lad replied with a cocked head, "It's alright. I don't think I heard anything really. I was day-dreaming for a moment." Listening to the rest of the man's words, Isi lifted a surprised brow and continued, "Oh, that's why you're here. My grandmother sent me here to pick up a gift. I see you know about Project X, but...Do you know much about Lab 305? I heard that there are two new additions to the lab that need a home. I'm guessing that's what my gift is. Old Maasi was never the best at hiding secrets."

Watching the girl carefully over the man's shoulders with his grey eyes, Isi's face melted into a smile of amusement, before he snapped his gaze back to the adult. It was clear that the boy had a quirky explosive personality, but when kids were around, he simply melted with adoration and love. Odd combo, yes? Well, then again, Isi's a strange boy. "She's adorable," He added suddenly, pulling his smile into a wide half-grin.

Asahi Kumoru

Serif glared over the back of her chair at Kumoru and the young stranger, and made faces at her father. Then she slipped down out of it carefully, and ran over to cling with both arms to Kumoru's leg.

Kumoru's left eyelid twitched ever so slightly as the girl attached herself to his leg. He leaned down to ruffle her hair. "Yes, she is terribly cute. Very energetic," he said a bit tightly. "I don't recall having heard anything of Lab 305, though. I guess that shows how long I have been away from this place. Must be interesting, though, to be a part of Project X.

The girl watched Isi for a few moments, grinning a cherub's smile. Then she scrunched up her face and offered him a rather moist raspberry before breaking down in giggles.

Storei

Isi was just about to answer the mage's assumptions with a description of the lab when his girl gave a rather amusing raspberry. Lifting his brows and giving a slight chuckle, Isi waved to the little girl and said in a very fatherly tone, "Alright, little one, go back to your chair and sit there while your daddy and I have a talk, alright? Maybe afterwards I could give you a piggy-back ride. Would you like that?" It was no doubt shocking to hear that voice come from a young pointy-tipped eared boy, and deserved a cynical lifting of the brow. In truth, Isi adored children and family. Well...All family besides Maasi. They would spend the majority of every evening arguing about the most stupidest of things...But even then, he had a soft spot for the old coot he just couldn't seem to ignore.

"As I was saying..." Isi continued, dropping the child-friendly voice he had used for Serif, "Lab 305 creates beings from two items, one, a fel essence and a soul. The lab owner goes out into the world to collect these fel essences and then brings them back here were they are distributed to potential owners who will catch a soul suitable for the essence. then, having the two parts, they are melded together in the lab to create a being called a raevan! They start out without any of the lower body and then grow from there on out. I would say that it's very interesting."

Asahi Kumoru

Serif grinned at Isi, pleased at his reaction, and babbled something at him with the confidence of regular speach, but lacking coherant words. But she made no move to head back to any of the chairs, and simply continued to hold onto her father's leg. Maybe the person her daddy was talking to would just skip straight to the piggy-back part if she stuck around, Serif reasoned.

Oh well, Kumoru had no where he needed to walk in the near future. He fiddled absently with Serif's deep red hair a little, and she seemed to bask in the attention.

The description of the lab caught his attention, though. Though Kumoru would certainly never tell a stranger about his deep-set interest in studying necromancy, he just had to further enquire about this most curious dealing with souls.

"That does sound interesting. Do you know anything about the device used to catch the souls?" he asked slowly, hoping his question would not seem to out of place.

Storei

"Um...It's like a bottle, really." Isi said, raising up a hand to stroke thoughtfully at his chin as he tried to remember what it was exactly the souls were captured in, "But the glass isn't like ordainary glass. It's...Something else really. But you place it next to the thing you want to capture the soul of...Say, like a tree...And wait. Then eventually, the tree, or whatever you chose, will die and its soul will be captured in the bottle."

Isi repositioned his crutch and leaned heavily on it, giving another smile.

Asahi Kumoru

"A bottle," Kumoru repeated quietly, committing the details of what he was told to memory. He would have to look this sort of thing up in some of his books, to see if there might be further information. Some part of him doubted it, since the young man had mentioned combining the soul with an essence in the lab, but Kumoru would be quite a poor student indeed if he did not even try to look.

He was quite curious to see how the bottles worked, regardless. But 'family members' had also been mentioned; Kumoru was sure he had quite enough of those already. Another child and he just might have to move out of the little cottage he loved so dearly.

"So, you mix soul and essence and get another being." Kumoru wanted to be sure he had heard every bit correctly. "And," he shrugged a little, "These beings are raised in the laboratory? Or given out to parents to raise, like Serif was?"

Storei

"Yup, you're quick," Isi said, flashing a white toothed grin. Over all, the man was acting a bit strange, and he did seem to be an odd one for taking care of a child, and he was just acting a bit suspiscious. Well, that wasn't new. Weird people were everywhere nowadays and Isi just happened to be living with the grandmother of them all. Shifting his crutch again awkwardly underneath his arm. Isi switched his half-grin onto the other cheek and raised his brows again, "The raevans are taken home with you to be raised there. You come back in every so often, though, for check-ups and whatnot."

Asahi Kumoru

"Sounds interesting," Kumoru said, nodding a little. He glanced off towards the doors that lead back to the labs, as though he somehow might be able to see whatever science and magic created these 'raevans'. Perhaps if he had a better idea what sort of 'essence' was required to make them.

Turning his attention back to his daughter, the mage leaned down to pick the girl up in his arms. "Did you say you had one of these raevans?" he asked, frowning a little as though he was not sure if he had asked that before.

Serif gave a babble of protest at being lifted from the ground, but clung to her father's robes anyway without too much more fuss. She then smiled impishly and reached out to grab Kumoru's ponytail, and started to play with his hair.

Storei

Isi shook his head and gave a helpless motion with his arms combined with the silky shrug of his shoulders, "No, not right now. But I'm actually here to pick up the soul bottle, which is the first part to making a raevan. I'm pretty sure that's what grandma sent me here for. There's nothing else Lab 305 to give out, right?" He glanced around, secretly hoping for one of the lab assitants to walk out of the doors. He had to head home to make supper for Maasi. If he didn't get back within the next hour or so, he'd most likely find the crazy old coot hunting squirrels in the backyard again with his nerf gun.

Letting his shrug slip back down, Isi blinked his grey eyes and blurted suddenly in his boyish fashion, "By the way, I'm Isikoiron. You can call me Isi for short."

Asahi Kumoru

The mage bowed politely at Isi's introduction, managing to appear quite elegant in spite of the toddler in his arms fiddling determinedly with his ponytail.

"Very pleased to meet you, Isi. My name is Kumoru, and this little girl is Serif."

The girl murmured something indistinct, but did not grace Isi with the courtesy of a wave or a smile, or even of turning around to look at him.

Kumoru bounced the girl a little and adjusted his hold on her, his eyelid twitching ever so slightly as she tugged on his hair. Regardless, he made the effort to keep a polite smile on his face as he asked, "Ah, when you receive the soul bottle, if it happens today, do you think I might be able to take just a quick look at it?"

Storei

"Yeah, it's nice to meet you too, Kumoru. Oh, the soul bottle? Sure, whatever you like." Replied Isi with another casual shrug that quirked his position on his crutch. At times, his crutch would become annoying because the soft gel pad that held him up wouldn't always be as soft as he would've liked. That and the rubber bottom of the crutch was beginning to wear out ever so slightly so it made that annoying tapping sound as he hobbled. For some reason, he thought of the sound being perfect for a horror movie scene. Something that resembled the clicky typing sounds of that one scary movie, 'The Shining'. All work and no play made Johnny a very bad boy. All work and no play made Johnny a very bad boy.

All work and no play made Johnny a very bad boy. A very bad boy, Johnny was made with all work and no play. No play and all work made Johnny a very bad boy. All work and no pl...

Isi shook his head free of the disturbing memory of the movie and blinked stupidly for a moment. At that point in time, the boy decided it best not to excessively watch late night horror movies.

Asahi Kumoru

"Ah, thank you," Kumoru replied politely, if a bit tonelessly, as he gave a slight bow of thanks. Then he winced a little, and set Serif back down on her feet on the floor. Only the slightly distracted touch to his voice betrayed that his thoughts were elsewhere at the moment, on things probably anyone but the necromancer himself would liken to horror movies. Capturing souls and harnessing them for these Raevans... however it worked, it was likely more pleasant than anything Kumoru's imagination could concoct.

Noticing that there had been a few consecutive seconds that lacked noise, Serif took it upon herself to add to the conversation a little.

"Bwaaaah ahmwoooo?" she asked, looking up at Isi and giggling at how much fun it was to draw out the vowel sounds like that. Then the impish little girl reached out a hand towards the boy's crutch; her manner was not malicious, and she kept her eyes on the thing as she put out her hand, like she wanted to be absolutely sure she wanted to touch it. Whether or not her babbled question was asking permission was anyone's guess, though.

Storei

Isi knew what he was doing. He was staring at the odd man with knitted brows and gaping mouth. The expression on the Kumoru's face was an odd one in fact, and Isi could tell that whatever he was thinking of wasn't pleasant. What could that man possibly be considering about a soul bottle? Well, certainly he wasn't the kind of man who would break something so important. And certainly he wasn't the man who would...Steal his bottle. But just as Isi was about to ask what the man did for a living, the young boy noticed the girl reach out for his cane.

His grey eyes considered considerably and he tried to back away from the impish child, "Uh...N-no...What was your name? Sarah? Serish?" The boy stuttered urgently, "N-no...Serif. Yeah, that's it...Don't...! Don't touch the crutch. I need it to...To stand up. Don't!"

Asahi Kumoru

With a heavy sigh, Kumoru snapped out of his dark thoughts, and leaned down to pulled the girl back away from Isi. He did not look like he was trying to hurt her or anything, but there was a certain roughness to the movement that was clearly meant to be part of the girl's scolding.

"Don't bother him, Serif," the mage told her firmly. "That isn't a toy."

The girl giggled weakly, as though trying to salvage the last of her fun from the attempt to grab the crutch, but quickly trailed off and looked up at her father. Then she pouted and squirmed a little.

"Go sit in one of the chairs and look at the magazines for a little while, Serif," Kumoru continued. "And don't cause trouble." With that he released her.

Giving a pointedly sad glance to both Kumoru and Isi, Serif trudged away from them and went to go inspect the chairs for the perfect one.

Straightening again, Kumoru brushed his long black hair back behind his shoulders. "Sorry about her," he told Isi. "She is a troublemaker to the core. I won't let her try it again." Hopefully the boy would not be too upset.

Storei

Relieved, the weak legged boy calmed down and gave a glance of gratitude in Kumoru's direction. "Thanks," The boy replied, sighing as he stabled himself once more, "Oh, that's alright. Just as long as she didn't pull my crutch out from uinderneath me, I'll be alright. Thanks again."

Messing around with his mouth and attempting to spark another line of conversation before the assisstant showed up, Isi asked, "So? What is it that you do for a living?"

Asahi Kumoru

"I am a magic user," Kumoru replied without missing a beat. "I am still a student, but then we are all always students." It was the truth, of course, just not all of it. No harm done, though.

"I think I will need to take up a more steady profession soon, though, to make sure I can spoil my children as much as I would like," he continued, tucking his hands into the opposite sleeves of his navy robes, and glancing off to the side and out the window. "Perhaps in a library. Someplace quiet."

As though to supply Kumoru with a clear reason why he wanted quiet, Serif took that moment to give up on the chairs and run around in circles around the whole row of them. She giggled, held her arms out to her sides, and made whatever loud nonsense noises came to her. She was an airplane!

With a patient smile, Kumoru edged over towards the girl so he would be ready to catch her the next time she came by.

"Sorry, I should take her home so she can be noisy and play with her brother. If no one is here today, I suppose there is not much reason for us to linger too long..."

Storei

"If you have to go. I'm not stoppin' ya." Isi shrugged thrice over, pulling up his hands to show his palms in a defenseless gesture. Then, the topic still on his mind, the boy complemented the magician, "That's awesome though, that you're a magic-user and all. I, personally, don't think I could do that. My magic is in gardening." Then with a defensive tone and quick indent of his brow, Isi replied hastilly, "And there's nothing funny about it."

Everytime he went out to garden, Isi found himself being harassed by the one and only Maasi who cackled and made gun shot noises from the window. She assumed that he was reinacting the trench warfare back in who knows days past.

Seeing that the delightful child was to be taken away, Isikoirin gave a little smile and waved to the girl.

Asahi Kumoru

Though he was towards the taller end of average, Kumoru did not have much weight to him, so when he captured his running daughter, she nearly knocked him over. Once he had Serif, the mage picked her up again and turned back to Isi, smiling slightly.

"Oh, I have great respect for any gardener. I have the brownest of brown thumbs," he admitted.

Serif did not seem too disappointed at being snatched out of her flight, but she squirmed anyway just to be difficult. When Isi waved to her, she waved enthusiastically back with both hands and laughed.

Storei

"What a charming child she is. She'll be quite the lady when she grows up!" Isi said as he entertained himself with smiling and waving at the child. When the man said, however, that he couldn't garden, Isi quirked a brow and replied heartfully, "Well, all I could say is give love for your plants and give what they need and let them have space. They know what they're doing. Magic is one thing, and plants are another, but in the end, I believe tey are of the same thing, they are both magic."

Asahi Kumoru

The impish girl grinned proudly and pulled on her father's hair to show her pleasure at Isi's compliment. Then she rested her head on Kumoru's shoulder and started going limp.

Kumoru disentangled Serif's fingers from his hair as quickly as he could, disappointed to see several jet black strands come free.

"If plants are magic, it is surely a type I did not study," he said in reply to the boy, forcing himself to avoid wincing at his smarting scalp. "I can raise them when they die, but that sort of defeats the purpose."

The mage glanced at Serif as she used his shoulder as a pillow, and adjusted his hold on her a bit so she would not slip out of his arms. "I guess I am to believe she really is tired, so I should take her back now. Perhaps once I've recovered, I'll bring her back here, and maybe we will meet again? I still would be curious to see your soul bottle, but perhaps I could just come back here and avoid troubling you further."

Kumoru bowed as much as he could without dropping his daughter. "It was nice meeting you," he said, then turned to head out the sliding doors.

Storei

"Death is too sweet a gift, why take it away by bringing them back?" Isi said suddenly with a strangely serious gentle tone. Then, blinking and bursting with an awkward smile, the seriousness vanished from the boy's face like a mist in the morning sun. Lifting his brows in an enthusiastic manner, Isi leaned forward on his crutch and bid the magician farewell, "Of course. I'm going to have to show you the soul bottle when I recieve it. It'll be cool to talk to you again, Kumoru. Keep wach over your daughter there. Bye!"

Isi watched as the man strided out the lab doors and the boy sighed. Turning around, he gave the entire room an appreciative measuring gaze. Well...Isi concluded, the room was very...

White.

Giving a nod of agreement, Isi thought: White is a perfect color. Makes it look clean, innocent, on track...And rather...

Empty.

Isi almost felt himself toppled over with the weightiness of the silence. Standing it no longer, the boy cast his grey eyes around to investigate corners for lab members. Growing frustrated, Isi called out dejectedly, "Is anyone there?"

 

[Storei]

Storei

Turning around, he gave the entire room an appreciative measuring gaze. Well...Isi concluded, the room was very...

White.

Giving a nod of agreement, Isi thought: White is a perfect color. Makes it look clean, innocent, on track...And rather...

Empty.

Isi almost felt himself toppled over with the weightiness of the silence. Standing it no longer, the boy cast his grey eyes around to investigate corners for lab members. Growing frustrated, Isi called out dejectedly, "Is anyone there?"

Isi quirked his head to the side as he heard a resounding 'no' in the bowels of the thickening quiet swelling all around him. Giving a loud yawn, the boy stretched his mouth and decided to meander up to the front desk where he could look into the thick glass of the case behind. Leaning onto the white desk with his arms, the young boy took out the crutch from underneath his arms and rested it against the furniture. Walking around on a crutch all day did no possibly good for one's underarms.

Suddenly a grey shiny glint caught Isi's grey eyes. Twisted his brown haired head to look down at the curious item, the boy found himself pleased at the sight of a silver handbell! It was the kind that one rang in a hotel for service. Lifting his hand, Isi slammed it down on the bell, splitting the air with a chiming crystal sound.

"Yes! I haven't played with one of these in years" Isi commented to himself as he repeatedly rang the silver bell with a flourish. In moments time, Isi found himself punching out the staggering tune of the Circle of Life.

Chloe Star

Isi was only able to get past the second set line of lyrics when the sliding doors that lead toward the back of the laps slid gracefully apart to reveal a pale, platinum haired male with nothing but whisps of smoke and cloth for a lower half floating in the frame, hands pressed firmly to his ears. He wore an aggrivated scowl and when he saw the two leg standing there at the reception desk dinging that incesent bell he pointed accusingly as if to shout 'YOU!'

But no words came out. Instead he laid the pointing hand flat out in the air, palm up, and very rapidly formed a crystaline shard of ice.

What he intended to do with it, however, would never be revealed, as a pink haired woman came rushing through the doors after him, looking quiet frazzled, as usual.

"Oh! P-Please, I'm coming! Yes! R-Roux, no!" Her words were mixed up, her mind tumbling over itself and causing her to stutter and seem to make no sense.

Upon hearing Chloe shout his name in alarm he dropped his hand, letting the ice shard drop to the floor and break. It soon began to melt and form a puddle, which Chloe noted she'd have to clean up immediatly after dealing with the person at the desk.

She turned to him as Roux floated sulkily passed them both and stared out the window, pressing his palms to the glass. She gave Isi a nervous smile, bowing her head forward as she bustled behind her station. "E-Excuse me... h-hello, I'm Chloe Star. H-h-how may I help you?"

Storei

Isi blinked in shock as a prosession of strangers, both legged and legless, came tumbling out of the glass doorway in a frenzied swaggering fray. Immediately stopping his tune, Isi nonchalantly pushed away the bell behind a cup full of pencils and pens and smiled an uneasy grin. The girl was stuttering madly and the floating boy was twitching madly. Strange combination, but surprising nonetheless.

"Yes, hello. It's nice to meet you Miss Star, or may I call you Chloe?" Isi greeted with a wave of his hand as he leaned on the desk. Then, tilting his head at a downward angle, the boy apologized, "Sorry for being annoying and ringing the bell. I didn't think that anyone was here. I guess that bell really does work. I'm Isikoroin, but you can call me Isi."

Glancing curiously over his shoulder at the icy floating body, Isi jerked a thumb in the young man's direction and exclaimed in fascinated awe, "Hey, isn't that a raevan? He's the first one I've ever seen! He's yours isn't he?"

Yes, he was getting off the topic of what he really needed help with. No, he didn't seem to care, partly because his attention was distracted elsewhere.

Chloe Star

"Oh... please call me Chloe." She glanced over toward Roux when Isi pointed him out. There was love and affection on her face, as well as a bit of nervousness.

"Y-Yes... that's Roux. He is a Raeven."

Isikoroin... Isikoroin... the name... she knew she wrote it down somewhere. Chloe's eyebrows furrowed together in thought, beginning to shuffle through the mass of yellow post-it notes that had lost their sticky and were scattered all over the desk.

Give Tsu a call, give Kyou a call, find if Julian was busy, take out the trash - no wait, that one was a week old.


Roux, however, turned slightly when he realized attention was being paid to him. He narrowed his eyes at the two leg and gave a small huff, making sure to chill the air in front of him just enough so that his breath puffed out in a visible vapour.

Storei

"Fantastic!" Isi said, an adoring look of his own. The way the raevan acted was almost childish, as if he were new and young. It was amazing to see the raevan huff his cold air in the boy's general direction with discomfort. To Isi, watching this frei called Roux, he felt the yearning of one of his own to care for instead of the gut wrenching feeling of discovering that one's self was not liked by another. Then, distracted again as the young lady called Chloe scambled noisily through mountains of displaced papers and sticky notes, Isi leaned over the edge with his thick green coated arms to get a bird's eye view of the situation, nearly lifting himself off his weak legs as he surveyed the messy desk.

"Um...If it'd help any...I'm here because my grandma, Maasi, sent me here. She said that there was a surprise for me here to pick up." The boy offered helpfully, making sure he didn't knock over his crutch in his balancing act. "I'm guessing it's an essence and a soul bottle unless you give out anything else here."

Chloe Star

Roux gave a small smile as the positive word was used to describe him. He gave a small nod and turned back to look out his window, now touching the glass to frost it over and trace pictures in it.


Chloe gave a small sound of relization when the young man informed her of his reason for being there. Yes! Now she remembered, and sure enough there was the post it note stuck to the side of the desk (where she kept all VERY important messages) that read "Isikoroin, apt to pick up bottle and Unwithering Leaf Fel Essnce."

She looked up, her smile growing a little. "Oh yes, you're perfectly on time. Just let me..." She reached in her pocket and pulled out a ring of keys. She picked up one and tried to put it in the lock but found it wasn't the right one, fumbling through them a bit more before getting the correct key and sliding it into the lock.

She slid the glass case open and with the most gentle care lifted the bottle that held the delicate looking leaf and a soul bottle. She slid the case shut again and made sure it was locked before turning around and heading back toward the other. She was as careful as she could be, watching her feet as she moved. She didn't dare drop something so precious. She knew it was all tough but...

... she'd never forget the horror of seeing Roux's cracked soul bottle.

"Here you are..." She held the two items out in her palms, fingers curled up around them protectivly in case they decided they had a mind of their own and wanted to roll.

"You're a very lucky man, your Grandmother must love you very much."

Storei

Acceptance.

The boy's grin widened more as he saw the frei reply with a small smile of his own, a sort of 'okay' and regonition. Alright! He was accepted by the icy raven, and that was all Isi needed from Roux to know that he had been, in a way, welcomed to the lab. Then he heard a chiming sound. Spinning around and almost knocking his crutch to the floor, the boy turned to find Chloe working away at the lock of the glass case. Isi's heart skipped a bit as he heard the jingling of the keys and the gentle click of the lock, the sound of change (Not loose change, but change nonetheless)! His grey eyes swelled with anticipation as she picked them up and he opened his mouth in a happy intake of breath.

Then he heard the word: man.

Bursting into laughter, the boy shook his head and opened his arms up to recieve the two delicate items in his palms, using his elbows to keep himself standing upright with the counter. "I'm only fourteen!" The boy replied with a good-hearted laugh, "But I'll take that as a compliment anyway. Yes, my grandma...Is...Very lucky to remember that she still cares for me. She's my adoptive grandma, but she's family no matter how I look at it Thank you so much for these! I...I'm very excited."

The leaf bobbed calmly in the jar, uninterested in the fact that its fate was now sealed. The bottle, however, was void of a soul (Ha) and was also void of an answer. So they had nothing to say upon the first meeting with their new guardian. Looking at them both excitedly, Isi inspected every inch of each item.

Hmm, what was that? Speaking up, Isi nodded at the leaf and knitted his brows together, "There's something on the leaf. What is it? Blood?"

Chloe Star

Chloe flushed darkly as he laughed, should she have said young man? Some people looked older, some people looked younger, she'd never been the best at guessing anything.

"I... I'm s-sorry.."

Thankfully she was distracted by his question, leaning in slightly and reaching a hand out from a labcoat pocket to push her glasses up along the bridge of her nose.

She gave a small sound of dismay. "B-Blood... well ... I.. I d-don't really know. I n-never thought.... I ... w-well it looked like a piece of ..." what was she going to say, dirt? A bit that had withered? The former was unlikely and the later impossible.

"Y-You could ask.. Dr. Kyou sometime... If you can f-find him, I'm sorry."

Storei

Isi looked at the leaf with a relatively calm smile. Oh well, a little something wouldn't hurt, right? The floating leaf didn't reply. It still didn't seem like it was caring...Rather, it didn't really know what was going on. But that's besides that point.

"Oh, it's alright, Chloe. No damage taken. Everyone makes the same mistake with me, they think I'm 20 or sometimes, 8 years old. It all varies so it doesn't matter.

Hmm, ask Dr. Kyou? Is he around right now?" Isi concluded, disgressing back to the pink haired lady's last suggestion.

Chloe Star

Chloe looked around as though she could summon the good doctor by sight. She looked apologetically back toward the boy and shook her head. "I don't think so, I'm sorry... he's usually very busy with things..."

She bit her lip nervously and looked very apologetic.

Storei

The boy shrugged, giving another kind hearted smile. "It's alright, I could understand. How many of these raevans do you have running around here now?" The boy held the soul bottle and the essence bottle very carefully in both hands, still grinning at them like a child on christmas day. He couldn't wait to get home and start making things ready for the new raevan! So much to do, so much preparing, so much thinking. Then there was the task of capturing a soul. What soul could he possibly choose for an unwithering leaf? And it would all start when he got...

Home.

That was still a long ways away. Wincing at the thought of the new problem Isi did a quick math calculation in his head.

Delicate Soul Bottle + Fragile Essence Jar + Crutch = ... very large chance of dropping either himself or his newly acquired gifts.

"Uh oh."

Chloe Star

Chloe paused, tilting her head back slightly to think, holding out her hand as she spoke softly to herself. "Lazi, Sevi, Meli, Gage, Roux... Vyn... the light bottle... the one with the universe... Alexi's Raeven.. uhm... Oh... R-Rivener..." She groped around in her mind for any others, face lighting slightly. "Oh, and I heard Dr. Tsu has one as well... so... th-that would be eleven. Thirteen counting the one you have and the other that guardians were recently chosen for."

She became distracted by his look of worry, though. Her own brows creased with sympathetic concern. "What's wrong?"

Storei

"That's a lot of raevans," Observed Isi with wide eyes as he heard the enitre family listed off to him by the pink-haired girl. By now he had gotten used to her stutter and he hardly noticed it anymore. Then, she questioned him about his earlier 'uh-oh'. Forcing an odd smile of embarrassment, Isi replied, "I...my legs are weak. Especially my right leg. I'm not able to walk without my crutch. I don't know how I'm going to get both of these items home if I'm to hold both them and my crutch. I'm afraid I might drop one."

Chloe Star

Chloe frowned softly, looking over at the bottle and vial with perplexion. "I... I can't leave right now.. I'm working.." She was perpetually working, the girl was either at the lab or meeting others when it involved the Raevens.

And then she perked up slightly, eyes sliding over to look toward Roux. But... he'd never done something like this before.. she'd never asked him to, rather. She didn't even know if he would.

And she was partly afraid of what he might do unchecked. No.. maybe it wasn't a good idea.

"I.. u-uhm..." she bit her lip with growing nervousness, she wanted to help, she just wasn't sure how. "I.. I suppose... i-if you l-leave it here I can m-mail it to you... u-uhm.. th-that's how I got my b-bottle and vial... a-and a few others."

ShivA

Zephrnyx lurked as he often did near the lab, peering in rather interestedly at the young man on crutches receiving a mysterious bottle and vial. His large eyes stared almost subconciously at the boy, aiming more to the empty bottle. 'I wonder what the empty thing is for... and, why there a leaf in the vial..?' More mysteries to "unravel" left him rather excited, his eyes slightly glittering with light. His head tilted slightly to the side as he saw the boy having trouble with something. He wondered slightly if he could help, though all the same, felt that he'd bring about the name of "stalker" if he randomly burst in.

Storei

"It feels so odd to part with them now," Isi said in a sad fashion, looking at the bottle and twin glass jar with discomfort. Then, shrugging in his mild-mannered fashion, the boy said with a small laugh and a smile, "If only I had brought my backpack! Oh well. When would I recieve them? A day or two?"

Chloe Star

Chloe's heart sank a little. He was really just a boy, she could see it in his face in that moment as he looked at the bottle and vial. She bit her lip once more and looked over at Roux, finally coming to a conclusion.

She was going to put her foot down firmly.

"I... u-uhm... just.. wait a moment." She made a motion in the air as though to tell him to just stand still. She bustled over to Roux, pulling him a little bit away and looking earnestly up at him. "Roux...." She licked her lips, giving a little nod of certainty. "I want to ask you to walk this boy home and help him carry his vial and bottle."

Roux took a moment to consider what she was saying. He surprised her by nodding his head in agreement, however, with no qualms.

For the first time he'd be out of Chloe's sight and NOT within the boundaries of the apartment or the lab. Or wherever else she'd taken him.

He'd have free reign...well mostly free.

Chloe blinked, and then smiled. She reached up to softly touch Roux's arm, really wanting to hug him but not trusting that she'd be able to. "Thank you, Roux! Come straight back to the lab, I'll have something for you, okay?"

She headed back over to Isi, an uncharacteristic bounce in her step. "Roux will go with you, Isi! He can carry both or just one for you!"

Storei

Isi watched her with curious hopeful eyes, confused by her actions as she bustled about again. She had moved over to her raevan, to Roux and gave him an earnest look. Blinking, Isi watched the quick and quiet exchange between them. Then the frei gave a nod and Isi blinked.

What was going on?

"He'll go with me? Awesome!" Exclaimed Isi with renewed and reinspired hope. He'd be able to take them home today. He bounced slightly and nearly lost his grip on the cabinet, "It would be nice if he could carry both. I'd like a free arm in case I fell. Tnks, so much! I'll be sure to keep watch over him."

ShivA

Through small motions, Zeph noticed that the floating half-bodied person who earlier had formed ice at the boy in his hand was about to escort him home. Stepping back, a slightly-worried expression formed over his face. Somehow, the Raevan gave him a bad aura; he decided he would watch from a short distance. Just in case, of course.

Chloe Star

Chloe took a deep breath, looking directly at Roux for a moment. She was beginning to feel as though this might not be the BEST idea... but he'd been behaving a bit better around people lately, it was about time she trust him to go out on his own, so to speak. "Would you, Roux?"

The Raeven gave a small huff, reaching out impatiently so he could take the bottles. Just this one chore, without fault so that he couldn't be in trouble later, and then... oh then.

The only thing to think about was what he would do first.

He floated over to the door and picked up his parisol. It was a slightly cloudy day, looking like it wanted to rain, so he probably wouldn't need it. Better safe than sorry, though, right? He looked back and motioned impationtly at the boy, his lips pressed tight together.

"Th-thank you.. Roux! And thank you, Isi... I-I hope to s-see you again sometime! Be safe!"

She began to realize how much of a mother she sounded when a few papers slid off the desk and scattered onto the floor. She gave a small gasp of surprise, bending over in a hurry to pick them up, thunking her forehead quite heavily against the lower shelf.

She quickly squated down, holding her head, glasses askew on her face. She stayed that way for a moment, looking more like a child with a boo-boo than a mother now, before beginning to gather the spilt papers.

 

[Storei]

Quote:

Isi waved his goodbye to Chloe and thanked her once again as he fitted his crutch underneath the pit of his arm and began to hobble towards the door and the icy raevan. Grinning at Roux, Isi replied, "Alright, now. Follow me and be careful with your sibling there."

Leading the raevan outside the white washed walled lab for the first time, Isikoroin carefully made his way down the welcoming steps. Everytime his crutch hit the ground, there was a slight tapping sound, for he had already worn out the bottom of his favorite crutch. He'll have to get a new one soon, this one has already known too much love.

After a good twenty minutes of silent strolling along the backroads of Gaia which led into the plains of the eastern territory, Isi cleared his throat and then looked past his shoulder to gaze appreciatively at the frei.

"So...Roux, right? You looking around and memorizing the way back right?"

The sky was grey and heavy above them, and walking so close to the frei didn't help the boy's temperature. He was chilly, sure, but thankfully he always wore his favorite jacket to keep out the cold.

Isi continued, "What do you think of the world beyond the lab?"

Quote:

Roux had been enjoying the silence very much, happy that for once a two leg had the sense to shut up and just let him be instead of asking him a million questions that he'd refuse to answer. The silence was ruined, however, and he was shaken from his thoughts at the boy's voice. He looked down at the other distastefully, the stick that he held beneath his arm and used to lean on was very ugly and annoying.

He gave an insulted huff when he was asked if he was mesmorizing the way back, of course he was. He flapped his wings in irritation, only to have them ruffle slightly.

The other question, however... he'd deign to answer, with a haughty smile on his face, even. "Big."

Quote:

Isi, at that point, had to try very hard not to laugh in adoration as he observed the frei. They did seem to be just like children at this stage. When Isi was younger and still in the orphanage, he would watch over countless amounts of children in the home. Roux just happened to remind him of one of the boys that would follow him around. That boy would be silent, slightly egotistical and just a tad bit curious, but underneath that mask was a kind soul not many could see. For that reason, Isi found himself worried about the boy never being adopted, but, just as it happened, the boy's nature was compelling and interesting in a charasmatic way. He ended up being adopted and given a home after a few months in the homes. And Isi could see that more or less, Roux was somewhat like that boy.

"Big is sort of an understatement." Isi replied with a smile that seemed to never wipe off his face, pointing forward with his free arm, "You see that line over there where the earth and sky meet? That's called a horizon. And the world is so big, that you'll never be able to reach that line."

Quote:

Roux stopped in his tracks, turning to look down at Isi as he himself floated higher, his expression one of deep insult and disbelief. He was note a child, nor an idiot, he knew how to read and Chloe provided him with books for when he was bored enough to read them.

He knew what the horizon was, the horizon was something he enjoyed very much, as a matter of fact. He had half a mind to pull back and cuff the boy straight across the face for speaking to him like that but he was holding the soul bottle and fel essence... and those items were at least sacred to him. He'd spent enough times in the labs to know what they meant, what they were... and even though he might dislike whatever Raeven came out of the mixed pair he would not risk bringing harm to such precious things.

He had his principles too.

As it was he pinned Isi with a narrow-eyed stare that he hoped the two leg could feel burning through his skull, flapped his wings, and then continued on, refusing to look at Isi even one bit. He paused only when they came to a crossroads and didn't know which way to go.

Quote:

Although Isi recieved the burning glare with a never changing smile, he knitted his brows a bit and the boy shrugged. Alright, so maybe he shouldn't treat certain freis like the children back at the orphanage. Imparting knowledge in a memorable way wouldn't work with this icy raevan, as for the fact that he seemed to already know what a horizon was.

However, if he would've recieved a glare like that from anyone else. Isi would've spun on that person immediately and yelled at them until they whimpered into a ball and stayed that way. The boy had not survived in a home with Old Maasi for four years for nothing! But if the frei did go beyond giving glares and the like, Isi wouldn't be afraid to answer the gaze, much less than go a step further.

Coming to the crossroads, Isi hobbled down the left path leaving the raevan to follow. For the rest of the trip, the journey was silent, but when coming into sight of the two story old white venetian home, Isi froze in his steps and gazed with horror upon the sight.

Old Maasi was parading about the land in front of the house in a cross between a sheep costume, and the remains of a torn apart suit of armor, spewing out the lines of Shakespeare and The Scarlet Letter. That was a usual sight for Isi to see. What he wasn't expecting to see was that Old Maasi had taken the time while he was gone to rearrange the family room furniture outside on the front lawn. Somehow or other, she had managed to string up a kitchen chair into a tree with rope and it was evident that she had been riding in it.

"MAASI!" Isi bellowed in a sudden out of character roar, far too large to have been cooped up in his little boyish body, "STOP YOUR SHANAGINS AT ONCE. DO YOU HEAR ME?!"

Maasi reacted by spinning around and staring at Isi with wide blue eyes, "Who is that man, Hester?!" She cackled, "I shiver at him! Dost thou know the man? I hate him, Hester!" Then with a hoot she yelled back, "It is the four-legged cripple! Fear his loud call! ONWARD!" And with a large splutter of noise she snapped her arms outwards like the wings of a plane and puttered around the furniture.

Quote:

Roux followed behind quietly, content to just look at the things around him, enjoying the outside that he didn't get to go into often. It wasn't that Chloe never let him go out, it was that she wouldn't let him go out alone, and so he usually had no interest.

When they came to the house he stopped beside the young two legs and... stared.

There wasn't much more he could do but stare.

He looked down at the smaller two leg, at the way he yelled at the larger one. He shifted the soul bottle and essence vial into the crook of one arm and reached down to pat his shoulder in an almost sympathetic way.

"Crazy."

Quote:

"Yes," Isi replied in a dazed sighing way, his eyes wide and his shoulders slumping at the thought of all the furniture he'd have to move back into the house, "You don't know the half of it, but I'm sure you have a good guesstimate by what you see now."

Old Maasi was still running around the furniture. Giving another half-hearted sigh, Isi looked up apologetically to the icy raevan and suggested with his usual smile, "I think you should stay right here until I get Maasi locked up in her room. If she comes in your direction, break for it."

Without another word, the brown grey streaked haired boy hobbled over the next few yards until he came admist the furniture beneath the trees. However, he did not seem to notice that Maasi had flounced behind a table and had leaned over to pull something. That something was a rope and Isi tripped over it right as the grandmother pulled hard on the string. The boy fell forward with a muffled thud and Old Maasi cackled wildly and hooted like a tribal indian.

"One down! WAIT! Look, Merlin! HE'S STILL UP."

Isi was indeed up (well, in the process of pulling himself up from the grass with the help of his crutch) and his face was twisted into a mein of anger. "OLD MAASI YOU SENILE ROTTEN HAG GET BACK INTO YOUR ROOM THIS INSTANT! OR, HEAVEN HELP ME, YOU WILL NOT BE GETTING CHOCOLATE PUDDING FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK. YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO ACT LIKE THIS IN FRONT OF GUESTS." Fuming mad, Isi was beginning to hobble forward, when he fell again for another one of Maasi's tricks. He stepped into a rope loop and his foot was yanked out from underneath him and pulled up into the tree so that he was dangling helplessly, his crutch on the ground.

Cackling hysterically at the success of her pranks, Old Maasi had taken one looked at Roux, realized he had no legs, choked down her laughter, and then paused to check her heartbeat.

It was good. Then...Why was she seeing...This...Young man...With...No legs?

"He has no legs." Furrowing a brow, Maasi seemed to change into an entirely new person and she walked back into the home quietly to muse over the being she had seen outside, looking quite bewildered and confused as if nothing had ever happened.

"YOU STAY IN THERE YOU OLD RAISIN-SKINNED CODFISH." Isi yelled at the retreating senile woman, red in the face and moaning about his legs. Twirling about slowly, Isi called out weakly to Roux, "It's alright for you to come closer now. She's inside the home."

Quote:

Roux stayed away for a very long time after the two leg went into the house. He watched Isi dangling in the tree for a while longer, mulling over all that just happened.

After at least two minutes of hovering where he was he began moving very cautiously toward Isi, skirtting around tables and chairs, before standing just below the young two leg. He looked up, a half smirk on his face - it WAS quite funny how the old two leg had strung this one up by a leg, and he'd deserved it, too, he'd talken to Roux like he was stupid.

Roux moved over to a nearby chair, gently placed the vile and bottle down on the cushion, making sure they couldn't tumble off, and then straightened. He looked at Isi again, lifting a hand to wave airily to him.

"Bye." He turned away and began heading away, intent on exploring what he could of the town before heading back to the Lab.

Quote:

Isi sighed heavily and sadly as Roux began to drift off like a wish being flitted and pushed around by the wind, watching as he dangled from the tree branch. The blood was beginning to rush to his head and Isi crossed his arms and shrieked again for Maasi to come out and untie him. The old woman came out timidly in regular garb, looked around for the no-legged man, and seeing that he must've been a part of her imagination, pranced over to Isi's tree and loosed the rope.

Isi fell to the ground in a crash, the rope still around his ankle and moaned, as he had hit his head on a sharp part of his crutch, giving himself a large scratch. Casting a hurt glare up at his adopted grandmother, the boy was surprised to see that Maasi had kneeled down beside him and was now tenderly cleaning his wound with a hanky. Then, she reached into her floral print apron and retrieved some first-aid wads and bandaging tape. Sticking her tongue out to one side, Maasi ordered softly, "Don't move," as she bandaged Isi's wound. Isi did as he was told and when the process was complete, Maasi smiled a gentle grandmotherly smile and stood up, "There we go. All done."

"Why can't you be like this in front of guests?" Isi asked Maasi as he groped for his crutch and pulled it out underneath him in the grass to help himself into a standin position.

"Well..." Old Maasi, pushed her glasses up her nose and thought about it for a while, then with swift motion, she pushed her arms into Isi and pushed him over again. With a startled cry, Isi fell over again and could only watch with a lopsided gaze as Old Maasi hooted and skipped back into the house.

Well that didn't last long.

Pulling himself up for the third time since his arrival, Isi hobbled over to the chair where Roux had laid the precious artifacts and he hoisted them up carefully into his arm. Alright, they were finally home. And with another heavy sigh, Isi shrugged to himself and murmured to the essence as he made his way inside the home, "Wecome, to our humble abode."

 

[Storei]

Isi hobbled in through the intricate carved wooden door, soul bottle and essence carefully clutched underneath one arm. His breath was almost visible in the cold evening air and he shivered visibly. Why was it getting so cold all of a sudden? He thought angrily as he bit down on his lip and shoved his way into the cozy little home. Slamming the door behind him as if the cold was stalking him through the doorway, Isi limped into the warmth of the entrance hallway, seeming to melt like frost into a warm lump of goo. With a contented smile spreading over his pale frosted cheeks, Isi seemed to forget about that fact that he was recently strung outside the home in a tree and had a large bandage on his forehead where he nearly split his head open. He shook off his dark green jacket and juggled the spirit bottle and essence to his knees so that he could pull his arms out, leaving the arms of the jacket in an inside-out jumble. Giving a sigh or irritation, the boy took the jacket and simply tossed it with frustration at the coat rack where it came to an uncomfortable rest at the foot of the wooden pole. Taking the soul bottle out from his knees, readjusting himself on his crutch, and straightening his spine, the boy rolled his eyes over to the kitchen where a warm soft light tumbled to the ground with a flourish.

“Maasi?” Isi asked loudly as he hobbled over to the warm doorway. He yelled louder, lifting his voice to a loud crackle, “Old Maasi! What are you doing? Where are you?” He always had to enter the house with a holler. The reason was not that Maasi was partly deaf, but rather that she could be anywhere doing anything. Isi didn’t want to list off some of her more odd excursions. Who knows what crimes or laws she could be violating now. Carefully pushing his white striped haired head into the kitchen, Isi flicked his tipped ears and warily cast his grey eyes about the yellow themed room. He should’ve hid the soul bottle, Isi thought with a regretting ill notion.

“I’m right here!”

To his surprise, Isi found Old Maasi making a moist chocolate cake with pink frosting. Normal hobby right?

Wrong.

Not for Old Maasi. The old woman was actually in the middle of frosting the bottom of the cake and slapping it back on the plate with a sickening ‘splotch’ noise. Pleased with herself she stuck a fork into the top of the cake and attempted to light it on fire with a match.

“Maasi!” Isi yelled again in strict warning, hobbling closer and putting the soul bottle and essence on the kitchen counter. Isi had then determined from that point on that he’d try to keep the soul bottle fifteen feet away from the old lady at all times. “What are you doing? Forks do not burn and frosting does NOT go underneath the cake, you senile old hag!”

Maasi turned with grey white curls bouncing around her face, her rosy lined cheeks swollen up in an angry puff, “Frosting goes under the cake. That’s how it’s always been done and that’s how it will be done!”

"You're doing it the wrong way! Raisin-skin!"

"Snotty-Nosed Four-legged boy!"

Throwing up his free arm in defeat, the boy replied, “Fine…Fine…Do what you like, just don’t try to set forks on fire and clean up after you’re done. Sheesh. I can’t leave this house without you trying to reenact the chimney sweep dance from Mary Poppins, now can I?”

On a completely different note, Maasi interjected pleasantly, as if the entire argument hadn't happened, "How'd you like your gift, dear?"

Isi spun around awkwardly on his crutches and smiled, completely changing faces and saying, "It's wonderful, grandma. I still can't get over it!"

Old Maasi grinned a polite sweet make-anyone-who-saw-that-smile-get-cavities smiles and then hissed in a sudden demonic cackle, "Well, no wonder you can't get over it. You can hardly walk!"

Muttering angry laments to himself and leaving the hooting and guffawing elderly woman behind him, the weak legged boy hobbled back over to the counter and carefully picked up his things, leaving the room and leaving grandma to her happy amused senseless self. As soon as his hands clasped around the essence jar, Isi’s anger seemed to melt away and he couldn’t help but smile down at the floating stained leaf. It was so innocent and green and stai-

But his anger quickly returned.

What was that stain anyways? It looked like blood. Pressing his face close to the jar as he balanced himself on his twin crutches, Isi crinkled his mouth into a thoughtful frown. Perhaps that was part of it. Yeah, sure! The blood stain was part of the package and he’ll have to learn to accept the leaf for all its stains and such.

“Feliz cumpleanos a ti, feliz cumpleanos a ti, feliz cumpleanos a ti….Feliz cumpleanos a ti! Ayyyyy! Ha!” Shrieked the cackling old voice of Old Maasi behind him, snapping the boy’s spine as rigid as a tree branch as the aching searing notes buried into his tipped ears.

Now, as much as he tried to accept Granny for all her faults...He just couldn't seem to do it. It was neigh on an impossibility for him to percieve doing.

And now there was another thing he just couldn't forgive.

It wasn’t the fact that all of the notes that were released from the moth’s cage of a lung were flat and off-pitch that sent the painful shiver down Isi’s back, but the fact that somehow, somewhere, Old Maasi had learned Spanish. And knowing that just created a whole new world of pain for Isi. Wailing pitifully to dodge the spanish language from his ears, Isi collected his precious Lab 305 items and rushed from the yellow kitchen and to his bedroom just a hallway down.  

[Storei]

Now within the safety of his native american themed bedroom, Isi stumbled weakly over to his bed and fell upon it, crutches and all. Ah, that felt good! He had been walking and standing for so long today, Isi thought that his legs might turn into jelly and just wobble out from under him. His bed was located right beside his window, underneath a sky of collected dreamcatchers. The long horizonal oval window was dampened by thick yellow curtains and see-through white viel, letting in the dying embers of the setting sun to tumble and lght up his room in an amber splendor. Rolling to the side upon his soft tan bed, Isi laid down the delicate essence jar and soul bottle beside him on his woven alpaca throw rug. Smiling at the floating leaf, Isi rolled himself all the way on top of his bed so he could rest his legs. The relief felt by allowing his legs to lie as if they were useless felt so nice to the weak legged boy and the burning swelling sensation that throbbed in his bones began to dull and soften. Isi smiled to himself and stretched a bit before he turned back to face his newly acquired items, his head resting upon his crossed arms as he laid on his stomach.

So...He had the essence and the soul bottle. What was it that he had to do now?

Isi reached back into the depths of recorded information and sifted through the day's events. However, with the ever so soft but just loud enough to be a distraction noise from Old Maasi as she performed a ceremony of passage for the fork adorned cake to be eaten in the background, Isi found himself at a loss.

Becoming easily frustrated, the boy lifted up the soul bottle and looked it over, it's touch cold and leeching the warm from his fingers, "Why don't you come with an instruction manual?" He interrogated angrily.

The bottle gave no reply.

Then the answer snapped to Isi's mind and he remembered what he must do next, giving a slight sound of recollection. Ah! He had to capture a soul. And to do that...He had to...Isi curiously juggled the bottle softly in between his hands, observing how hungry it was for a life force to swallow. He had to place it near the soul he wanted to capture. That sounded easy enough. But when it came to the question of what soul he was going to take, Isi found himself, again, at a loss.

What could be possibly find that would work with an unwithering leaf? What could there possibly be for him to take around this crazy upside down household? With a grim smile, Isi considered taking the soul of his grandmother. But then he discovered that having her gone from one body, she'd only appear in another. So he scratched that comical idea from his head. He wouldn't have done it anyways, that would be horrible! He was, sadly, too attached to Old Maasi to even seriously consider that alternative. But then...What else could he possibly use for a soul?

Placing down the soul bottle and letting it rest on the white alpaca fuzz, Isi then traded for the floating leaf essence. Analyzing it in it's glass emprisonment, Isi stared at the ruby-aunburn stains in irritated wonder, grey eyes focused and mind concentrated.

"What could I harvest for you?" He asked the stained green leaf.

The leaf was quiet.

Isi stared at the gentle swirl of the leaf and found himself transfixed in the fading dusk light, and right as the leaf completed it's slow turn inside the glass jar, he boy heard a cry of delight from outside.

"FLEEFLEEFLIIIIIIII!!"

It was Old Maasi, running around in the backyard in her safari outfit, waving her arms about her head like a windmill as she waltzed clumsily in a cloud of blinking lights. Fireflies. They appeared in the summer and early fall around the white washed house in the middle of nowhere, swarming in the air like a peaceful serende around his treehouse, his home, and the swamp just a couple yards away. And there were hundreds of them! It almost looked like the stars in the sky had fallen from the heavens to live their lives and blink upon the earth underneath the atmosphere. Then Isi gasped and his pale face lit up with aniticipation. He loved to catch fireflies and when he heard that word, he sprung up from his bed forgetting everything else, snatched his crutches and hobbled out his backdoor into the backyard to greet the summer nightlights.  

[Storei]

Stepping through his white window paned door, the boy's eyes lit up with excitement as he came, face to face, with a cloud of blinking fireflies. A smile melted onto his pale cheeks and he could've jumped for joy if it weren't for his weak legs. However, that smile of pure happiness could only last for a couple seconds before the senile Old Maasi flitted by him and attempted to eat the fireflies with her mouth as she bolted through the winking storm. That quickly morphed Isi's smile into a frown and he stomped his foot on the ground, leaning onto his crutches.

"MAASI," Isi angrily shouted at the old woman. That immediately caught Maasi's attention and she stopped in her tracks and spun around to face him with wide blue eyes, "GET OVER HERE." Like a sulking dog, Old Maasi sighed a raspy breath and then sloshed her way over in the grass to the frustrated boy. Isi, in his irritation, rolled his eyes at the old woman and tried to calm himself, "Maasi. You cannot catch fireflies in your mouth. You do not eat the fireflies. You do not squash the fireflies. Alright?"

Old Maasi nodded her head.

"Do you want to catch fireflies?" The boy on crutches asked.

The old woman bounched her white curls again.

Now the boy was calm, giving an exasperated look that implied the thoughts of I-cannot-believe-I'm-talking-like-this-to-an-elder, he forced a smile and ordered, "If you want to catch fireflies then go inside the house and find a couple jars from the kitchen. You know those glass jars with the holes that we made not so long ago? Yeah, get those. The glass bottles. And then come back outside and put the bottles on the ground. We'll both have a bottle and you can go catch fireflies. How does that sound?"

With eyes lighting up just like the fireflies around her, Maasi nodded her head energetically and clapped her hands, bouncing in her safari suit. Then, without another helpful or urging word from the boy, the old woman ran inside the house through Isi's bedroom door. Isi rolled his eyes for the second time in that short period of five minutes and waited for the old woman to return. He would've gone inside himself and gathered the jars, but it would've taken too long with his legs and all. And he didn't trust Maasi enough to be out here with the precious blinking jewels for as far as he could throw her.

And that wasn't that far.

A couple minutes later, Maasi came back outside the home just as it began to get dark, pulling over a toy red wagon filled with an assortment of jars and glass bottles. Isi rolled his eyes for a third time and began to relax, seeing as things were going as planned. This would be a perfect night for firefly catching.

...Right?  

[Storei]

Wrong.

In a matter of speaking anyways. Isi and Maasi had both opened kitchen glass jars and had started on their firefly catching adventure. Isi sat on the grass, crutches on either side of him, and had three jars before him of which he needed to fill. Maasi had about five glass cages which she was going to fill still all lined up in her red wagon which she managed to drag all over the backyard with her. Every couple minutes or so, the two family members would toss insults back and forth at ach other in a slow conversation. The old woman, if a particular good insult was heard, would laugh, slap her thigh, and promptly answer back with a cackling challenge. Unfortunately, Isi was too occupied with catching fireflies and contemplating his quest for catching a soul to realize that Maasi was doing it for him.

Old Maasi, in retrieving all the empty glass jars in the house, had also stashed the fel essence into the tea cupboard and gathered up the soul bottle into her wagon.

And that was the fatal and beautiful mistake.

Prancing about in the cloud of fireflies, Maasi decided to keep her distance away from Isi and his cloud of fireflies. There was still a sane enough part in the back of her head with told her to give him space so he could catch his own fleeflies. So, she carted herself and her little toy wagon to the opposite side of the treehouse near the swamp. With eager, mischievious blue eyes, the old woman glanced around hungrily for the next candidate, an open empty jar in her wrinkled raisin-like hands.

There!

Waiting long enough and searching for the brightest light to catch, Maasi had indeed spotted a perfect match. There was a slow dancing light just on the edge of the swamp, larger, by far, than any of the other fireflies. A heavenly chorus of angelic voices could've nearly played in the old woman's head as she stared on in awe upon the large bright ball of luminecence as it bounced to and fro and eventually alighted upon a cat-tail to rest. The time was perfect, the time was now, and Old Maasi was going to go for it!

If the old woman had an ingenious device with which she could broadcast the music playing in her head as she crept closer to the swamp and to the mysterious glowing light, Isi would've heard the crash and brave cresendo of the Indiana Jones theme. However, the old woman did not have such a device and had to hum the tune to herself instead. It was not as loud as she would've liked it, but it certainly gave her the adrenaline she needed to keep still and quietly move forward inch by inch to get up close to the glowing light. She was only two feet away now and as she leaned down onto her rusty knees in the squelching mud, she held the top of the jar with one hand and the actual glass imprisonment with the other. The light was still there, resting on the cat-tail. It didn't move or turn away, suprisingly. The ball of light, the gigantic 'firefly', must've had its back turned, otherwise it would've never gotten that close to a human. Slowly...Slowly...She was now only inches away from the prize and nothing could've gone wrong when suddenly...

Old Maasi sneezed.

By some strange stroke of luck, the sneeze was all that Old Maasi needed to capture the glowing ball of light! It must've startled the thing so much that it became paralyzed with fear before it noticed the jar scooping its little body up into the glass and the jar lid sealing it's fate with a muffled sound.

"EEEEEAHHHH!!! YEYEYEYEYEYEYEYE YEEEEEH!" Maasi twisted on the cap tightly and hooted her battle cry of victory, throwing the filled jar above her head and promptly slipping in the mud to fall face-first into the mud.

Squelch.

Isi, hearing another cry of victory, rolled his eyes for the fourth time and shouted, "You better be glad that we live in the middle of nowhere, or I'd have to duct tape your mouth shut so you wouldn't disturb the neighbors!" He twisted on the cap to a filled jar and placed it beside him and next to his first filled jar. Only one more jar to fill with firefly beauty.

Before he could reach for the next bottle, Isi found himself astounded and speechless as he watched Maasi parade around the treehouse...Covered, head to toe, in mud. She promptly performed the macarana before Isi, mud-covered jar in hand, shook her thing, and slammed her only filled jar in with the other three jars and right next to the one soul bottle (That Isi still failed to notice).

Growing frustrated again, Isi snapped at Maasi, "Hey! Hurry up and fill your jars and stop your hollaring!"

The old woman quickly complied by bursting into the Indiana Jones theme song and she broadcasted the tune as she raced back around the other side of the treehouse, red wagon trailing her, to continue her quest. Isi could only slap a palm onto his forehead and moan at the thought of Old Maasi having to take another bath. Choosing not to bemoan that fact, Isi shook the thoughts from his head and continued to catch fireflies from his spot on the ground.  

[Storei]

Isi stared dumbfoundedly between the FILLED soul bottle he managed to find in Old Maasi's bright red toy wagon and a curious jar which he had discovered right next to it. Old Maasi and he had finished catching all their fireflies and sat around a ring of glowing jars for a while, admiring the light they gave off, the cool summer night, and the endless vast sky above them. It had been quiet and peaceful for about half an hour and that was enough for Isi to thank the stars for a 'perfect' night of firefly catching. When the old woman had finished staying still, Isi had ordered her to go take a bath while he released all the fireflies back into their natural habitat. She held no objections and danced into the home covered in dry mud. Isi had then began to release all the fireflies from the jars, save one jar he would keep for himself and his fel essence, when he came across his soul bottle out there in the grass and another jar which no loner had a glow.

The first word out of his mouth was: "Crap."

The soul bottle had already harvested a soul on its own! Out of mistake! But what soul had the bottle managed to steal and eat? Fireflies, why did he trust Maasi to do such a thing when he should've foreseen her actions? Now, in result, the bottle had not absorbed a firefly soul like he had hoped, but something else! What was it? What was it?! Desperately, with racing heart, Isi bemoaned the terrible mistake and rubbed away the mud from the glass of the glowless jar. His grey eyes peered through the smeared remains of the jar to see something lifeless inside, moving around limply as Isi twisted the jar this way and that for a better view. It certainly was NOT a firefly, like Isi had hoped. It was too big! What was it then? The weak legged boy had never seen anything like this before, that's certain. It had...It looked like...No, it couldn't be.

"Ignus Faatus?" Isi gasped, pressing his nose to the jar in horrified wonder, "...A...A will-o-the-wisp?"

The brown grey haired boy gaped in surprise as he stared at the lifeless thing in the jar. He had heard tales about the strange gobual of light before many times when he read fairy tales in books or heard stories told about it from Old Maasi when she still had an ounce of sanity. They could be many things, many forms, but they were all of it all at once. They were most commenly found in marshes and swamps, floating above the waters to lead ignorant folks out into the wet maze to become lost, or to lead people to treasure, or to be lights of the dead wandering children who died before their time. There were thousands of theories to describe the nature of the ignus faatus and each one of them was an amazing story to behold.

What simply amazed him, however, was the fact that...Old Maasi, a senile crazy old crack-pot of a witch's grandma, had managed to capture the elusive will-o-wisp! Never before had Isi looked out his window to see a mysterious floating orb, but...Here it was in cold dead flesh, flopping around lifelessly inside a firefly catching jar, it's soul captured in the soul bottle.

Grey stormy eyes wide, Isi realized that he only had days before he had to return the bottle to the Lab before the soul somehow managed to escape. This was a once in a lifetime chance! And, all thanks to Old Maasi, Isi had recieved a better soul than a firefly to give to the fel essence: The soul of an ignus fatuus.

Isi, looking at the jar, still felt sad for the now dead will-o-the-wisp and he forced himself up from the grass. Slowly, but smiling at the mud-smeared glass, the boy on crutches hobbled underneath the treehouse, past it and to the marsh. He stood on the edge of the marsh, right where green soft grass turned into mush, and looked past th boundery into the vast swamp. He pulled the bottle near his face and whispered a collection of words, just like the indians did after killing something in their hunt.

"Thank you," Isi began softly, "Thank you for giving up your soul, even though it was not your choice, and giving the last ingrediant for a new body to be created. You will be reborn, but not as yourself as you used to be. I am sorry that your life had to end so abruptly but it's something that I could not have prevented in time. I will now give you back to your home and I promise that you wouldn't have died in vain." With the little prayer ended, Isi gave the bottle a remorseful happy long glance before he gently dropped the jar into the marsh to be claimed by it's foggy muddy waters.

Returning to the filled swirling soul bottle, Isi decided that he would go back to Lab [305] the next day to hand over the fel essence and the soul bottle to be worked with. Releasing the last of the fireflies, the boy watched the storm of glowing blinking lights for a moment longer before he gathered up all the empty firefly jars and placed them in the wagon with his soul bottle. Somehow managing to pull the load inside while on his crutches, Isi began to unpack the load and placed his filled bottle up on his bed on the alpaca throw rug right where the fel essence should've been.

Should've...Been...

"MAASI?! WHERE DID YOU PUT MY UNWITHERING LEAF?!"

"Would you like some tea?"

"AGHHH!!!"  

[Storei]

Alone.

Isi looked around himself and all he saw was the penetrating darkness of pure black. The black that was around him was so pitch that its mere colour frightened the boy out of his wits! He felt himself feeling pressed in by all sides and all he wanted to do was get out! But then...What was this feeling?

Cold?

Isi felt cold, he felt his body slowly dying all around him and loosing feeling unto such a coldness that had never been felt before! He was vanishing, being eaten alive, being eaten whole by this darkness, it scared him so! Isi felt that he had to scream, otherwise he might burst!

Fear!

So this was true fear, so this was true panic, so this was how absolute terror and helplessness could tear apart a person's soul! Isi clutched his grey eyes closed, snapping them shut and he released a blood curdling scream into the darkness, but alas, it fell dead into the black as soon as it came out of his mouth.

What was this? What was this?!

Isi awoke with a gasp and his entire body jolted with the feeling of falling. Looking around his dark bedroom with startled grey eyes, the boy coughed slightly and turned to the clock. It was morning. Today he was going to venture out to Lab 305 and drop off his precious artifacts, now ready to be made into one. Panting softly, Isi shook the thoughts out of his head and sat himself up, dazed and wide-eyed.

What was that dream about?  

[Storei]

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Hobbling once more into the white-washed walls of Lab 305, Isi smiled as the automatic doors shooshed open to recieve him. This time around, he had brought both of his crutches and had carried the essence jar and filled soul bottle in a cushioned backpack which was slung over both of his shoulders. Not only that, but he had secured his grandmother in her bedroom with duct-tape and left her a goodly portion of chocolate cake so that another...Isi blew away a stray strand of hair...So that another incident wouldn't happen. The boy looked fine as he awkwardly made his way in through the doors besides the fact that he now had a slightly blood soaked white bandage wad taped to the side of his forehead beneath his brown grey streaked bangs.

Clearing his throat, the boy called out softly, "Um...Halloa? Is anyone there?"

Quote:

Chloe looked up from where she was kneeling beside the receptionist desk. She smiled when she saw who it was, standing up and waving. "Oh, hello, Isi. H-How are you?"

She shuffled the papers she was holding and set them down, coming out from behind the desk. She slipped her hands politely into her pockets and stood still, waiting for the boy to make it the rest of the way to her.

Quote:

Isi gave Chloe a smile as he hobbled closer to the reception desk where she stood greeting him. With the help of two crutches, it took him a bit faster than usual to make it to her, "I'm doing better. And how about you?" Finally he made it before her and the boy stood, leaning on his crutches slightly as he watched her expectantly his childish anticipation for her answer.

Quote:

She smiled at him, nodding her head. "O-Oh, I'm so glad you're doing better! I'm d-doing fine as well. C-Can I help you with anything?" She looked down at him - he wasn't holding anything, so maybe he wasn't here to drop off his soul and essence... was he just here for a visit.

"O-Oh by the way, did your walk home go w-well? Roux wouldn't say anything about it... h-he definatly took a long time getting home..."

Quote:

Chloe's stuttering happiness always made the boy smile for reason. She also reminded him of someone he had known before back at the orphanage! Hearing her question, the boy nodded and awkwarly gestured to his backpack with his head, "I was smart this time and I remembered to bring a backpack to carry things with! My soul bottle and the essence jar are in there."

Then she asked the question he knew that would be coming.

"Oh, the walk? It was fine, but I think my grandma might've startled Roux. She...Performed quite the act in the front yard and...She strung me up in a tree with one of her traps. But otherwise, it was fine. He doesn't talk much and he likes to observe things." Isi then gave another awkward smile and attempted to take off his backpack while he was on his crutches.

Quote:

Chloe's smile broadened slightly, the eagerness and excitment of the boy was catchy. She paused when she heard him tell her about the walk, though, biting her lip to think. Roux? Startled? Well... it was possible, she supposed.

His small comment on Roux's personality, however, made her very pleased. She couldn't exactly place why, but it did.

"Oh, let me help with that." She moved around to lift the pack and hold it up so he could simply pull his arms out of the loops. "M-May I ask what s-soul you managed to capture?"

Quote:

Entirely possible when it was Old Maasi who startled him.

He hated being a weak-legged boy, Isi admited to himself finally as Chloe moved behind him and helped him with his backpack. One arm at a time, Isi was freed from the restraints of his backpack and he sighed in relief, "Thank you very much. I...I think it was a Will-o-the-wisp or ignus faatus, that Old Maasi managed to catch. The senile woman caught it by the marshes and she placed it right next to the soul bottle when we were firefly catching because she picked up every glass container she could find in the house soooo...The soul was a bit of a mistake, but a mistake for the better nonetheless! Sometimes I wish she was a little more sane and talked to me about it first. My grandmother's cheese has slid of her cracker, I sware..." He admited softly. Realizing that he was talking about the insanity of his grandmother to Chloe, the boy sucked his breath in and looked at her apologetically.

Quote:

Chloe's eyes widened, obviously impressed. "A Will-o-the-wisp? And she caught it?" She moved to unzip the bag but paused as she heard the explination of Isi's crazy grandparent. She gave a small, nervous smile. "O-Oh... well at least she's family, right? M-My brother is a bit... crazy as well... he's only a half brother b-but... h-he's family!"

She pointed to the back then, for the moment overgoing their current conversation in her excitement to see the soul. "M-May I open it?"

Quote:

"Nope, the codfish isn't even family. She doesn't have family either, which is part of the reason why she adopted me," Isi explained with a good-hearted chuckle, "Mind you, she is not like any other adoptive grandmother you have ever experienced. I think that's part of the reason why she was able to catch the will-o-wisp, or maybe it's back was turned. I don't know. But it happened."

Watching her smile with awe at the soul, Isi nodded proudly in his boyish manner and he said, "Yes, of course, you may open it."

Quote:

She didn't pause to think much of the adoptive grandmother comment - she knew of plenty of peopel who had 'adopted' people into their family, an adopted sister, brother, mother, grandmother was a little new but not completely strange to the woman.

She opened the bag carefully, very gently, amost reverently reaching in to pull out the two glass containers, first the essence, which she took a moment to admire once more, and then the soul... a very pretty thing that swirled ambiently in it's bottle.

She appreciated the soul for a few moments before nodding, hooking the loop of the backpack at the crook of one elbow, carrying it absently with her over to the glass case. She placed the essence and gathered soul in the case so Dr. Kyou could come and get it himself when he was ready, labeling each carefully.

She turned back to Isi, smiling, and holding out the bag. "It's a very beautiful soul. I bet the Raeven from it will be wonderful!"

Quote:

Isi readjusted his crutches underneath him, smiling in his awkward boyish way as he watched the soul bottle and the essence get filed away back from whence he had first since them not so long ago. For a split moment, Isi was glad that Maasi hadn't figured out how to open the essence jar to use the 'fine specimen' for a good ol' cup of Yggdrasil tea.

His raevan was growing up, Isi thought with a sad sense of pride as he retrieved his now-empty backpack. He was going to miss having the weight on his back.

"Thank you very much! I hope that it'll like to be with me and it doesn't mind me taking care of it. Back at the orphanage I 'mothered' a lot of children. Some liked it and some didn't." Isi laughed again as memories were slightly rekindled, and he turned his grey eyes upward, "I tried using the technique I used with the other orphans like myself on Roux, but it didn't work. Roux is too intelligent for that!"

Quote:

Chloe smiled comfortingly, going back behind the counter politely. "Ah, I'm sure it will, don't worry! All the Raeven that I've met seem to like their guardians!"

She paused a moment, thinking sadly back to a time before she was at the lab, giving a small nod. "Oh my, yes. Roux will be a year old soon, but all of the Raeven seem to learn fairly quickly. Please don't ask me to explain, it though, I don't really know why it is."

She looked down at the young man before her, something niggling at the back of her head. Something about his eyes... she couldn't place it though. She shifted awkwardly from foot to foot, growing slightly more nervous at the thought that she should remember something but couldn't.

"A-Ahm... did you call earlier.. or... I'm sorry, I don't have the best memory.." She began shuffling through some papers on the desk, looking in vain for a note that probably wasn't there.

Quote:

"That's good to hear," The boy replied in relief, a load of worry being lifted from his shoulders. Giving her an inquisitive stormy grey gaze after she had finished her explanation of Roux's intelligence, Chloe began to look at him oddly and fumble with things. As her worry and awkwardness spread to him in a contagious fashion, Isi tilted his head and watched her, sucking on his bottom lip.

"Uh," Isi looked a bit confused, "I'm sorry? No, I didn't call...Is there something wrong? Is there something I can help you with? You're acting strange all of a sudden like something's bothering you." He blurted out in his boyish innocent fashion. There were times when he didn't know how to keep his mouth shut. Isi sure hoped that she wasn't looking at him oddly because of his crutches...

He's had them ever since he was little, and yeah, sure, people gave him an odd glance when they first met, but unless they thought poorly of Isi because of his weak legs, no one would've given him a spare glance.

Quote:

She paused, looking at him curious, an expression of slight distress on her face. "I don't... k-know... I'm sorry. Nothing is w-wrong.. I just... thought I r-remembered..." She paused, chewing her lower lip as she desperately tried to remember what she was trying to. "S-Something.."

She paused for a while longer, trying to think it over before shaking her head slightly and looking apologetically back at the boy. "I-I'm sorry.. I really can't remember. Please forgive me."

Quote:

"You're quite forgiven, but you didn't do any harm to me." Isi shrugged uselessly, giving her a slight grey eyed expression of sympathy, "You weren't able to remember what you were thinking? It bugs me when things like that happen. Usually I stay up all night trying to remember something that I forgot and when I do remember it's in an unoppurtune moment. I hope you remember what you were trying to remember." Isi offered hopefully, grinning in his boyish way.

Just as she mentioned that, the slight worrisome expression on her face, loosened a memory in the back of his mind. He tilted his head and gave her a good look, trying to match faces with memories and so on. The weak legged boy knew that he had seen this young woman before somewhere...But where, Isi could not figure it out. Perhaps that's what she was thinking about too?

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"Oh... I-I don't know. I'll try." She gave a sheepish smile. "I usually write myself a lot of notes to try and help me remember but... it d-doesn't work because I'm always losing the notes. I-I've n-never been very good at remembering..."

She looked down at the desk, there were some papers she had to finish copying in duplicate.. some even in triplicate.. and send in, out, all around... a secretaries job wasn't as easy as it had first seemed it might be!

"A-Ah... excuse me... I..." She figited with her hands a bit, not wanting to be rude. "I r-really should get back to work.. Maybe you could... c-come visit another time..?"

Quote:

Isi shook his head and simply gave another of his optimistic smiles, "It's alright. I don't want to interupt you now, but I would really like to come back another time. I should be getting back home anyways, before Maasi gets lo-"

But before he could finish his sentence, a black ninja cloaked body bolted into the white lab, and threw itself onto the wall. Isi spun around and looked at the mysterious person before it clicked into his mind. Stamping his foot, Isi changed faces and yelled in frustration and in, "MAASI?! What are you doing here?! How'd you get out of your room? I duct taped your door shut!"

The old senile woman replied be flinging herself behind the couch and crawled over to the reception desk.

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Chloe jolted back in alarm as a black clad figure bolted into the room. Her first thought that it was the one woman who had the Arrow of Time essence - she'd finally come to get her revenge! Chloe quickly backed away from the strange figure as it moved closer to the reception desk.

"U-U-Uhm! P-Please... c-can.. h-how can I h-help you?" So surprised and nervous was she that the last word ended in a high pitched squeak.

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Isi spun around and flailed wildly on his crutches, trrying to gesture helplessly at her that it was alright and she didn't need to panic, "Chloe! It's alright, it's only my grandmother! Her name's Old Maasi, she-ERK!" He would've finished his explanation, but Maasi had snaked up behind him, sntached his crutches out from underneath his arms and hoisted the boy up and over her shoulder fireman style in one swift (very unexpected) movement. The ninja-clad old lady snapped her hands into several movements at the startled receptionist (the last hand sign being of the volkan 'live long and prosper' sign). With a quick trot, Old Maasi skipped behind the desk with a speed uncanny for her age, and she stuck a feather (Where she kept it, we'll never know) behind Chloe's ear.

"LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!" She cackled wildly, blue eyes bright behind her balck face mask, and then she bolted out the lab with a shouting weak legged boy over her shoulder.

Wailing angrily, Isi tried to shout things at Chloe as he was abducted abruptly from his conversation and he called helplessly admist his string of insults, "Chloe! I'm sorry! I'll come back later when I have time! ACK! MAASI, PUT ME DOWN! THAT'S HURTING ME! MAASI, YOU OLD SENILE RAISIN! STOP!"

"AHAHAHAAAAAHAHAAAH!!"

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The poor receptionist was left standing plastered against the wall, shaking like a leaf with an expression of definate fear on her face and a feather behind an ear.

 

[Storei]

Shrieking incoherently at his granmother as he was dragged away from his conversation with Chloe at Lab 305, Isi weakly jiggled his legs, "MAASI. LET GO OF ME NOW! MY LEGS! You're hurting them! STOP IT!" Maasi adjusted her grip on her adopted grandson and jostled him slightly so that he lost what little air he had in his lungs with a gasp.

The boy choked and decided to remain silent until they got back home. There was nothing he could do now and besides, if he went back to Lab 305 he'd just be bugging Miss Chloe. He had done what he needed to do and that was to drop off the soul bottle and the essence jar. Propping himself up on one arm, the boy blew a strand of hair out of his face and gave up right then and there, an awfully sarcastic look plastered onto his face.

If it wasn't the fact that he was being carried over someone's shoulder like a little child, then it was the fact that he was being carried by his grandma that made Isi feel uncomfortable and more than a little embarrased.

As the journey persisted, Isi noticed that they had strayed off to the right of the actual path home. The white home was simply another hundred yards or so away, but Maasi had changed course. Or did she change course at all?

Isi furrowed a confused brow and knocked on his grandmother's back, "Maasi." He called, "Maasi, where are you going? Home's over there. Where are you...? Maasi! Answer me!"

There came no answer. Instead, Maasi shifted him again on her shoulder and this time the boy was set down from her shoulder and onto his feet. Carefully wobbling slightly and bending his weak knees, Isi spun around to gaze where Maasi was facing, his hands clutching onto her elbow. The old woman had a weird face on underneath his mask, and he couldn't tell what it was until he looked upon what her eyes were focused on. There, half of it laid upon the ground like a sleeping body, was a tree, split in half by a bolt of lightning. It was a big old tree, one that Isi adored greatly in his youth. He would swing on its branches, run around its ginourmous girth and try to climb it regardless of his weak legs. But now, sometime recently because the wood was still smoking, a bolt of stray lightning from a passing storm had split the tree in two. Half of it still stood, but the other half bent and gave way to a hulking darkness in the center, a hollowed cave.

Isi released a quiet, "Oh no..." As his eyes welled up with sorrow at the heart-breaking sight. He tried to walk towards it, releasing his grip from Maasi's arm and he took only about fifteen steps before his legs failed and sent him to his knees. "The Ancient One...It was struck..."

Old Maasi came up behind him and sat down beside his position, a sad expression on her face as well, "I heard the lightning strike and I saw the flash. I thought it was nothing until I smelt the smoke. Then I broke out of my room and I found the Ancient One like this. But don't be too sad, my little Isi, the tree will still grow. It's only injured. It has been changed, but a lightning strike like this will not keep it from growing undetered. It has survived so much, this is simply another scar."

Isi looked up at her with wide grey eyes of shock for a moment before he turned back to look at the split blackened bust of the tree.

Simply another scar...?  

[Storei]

"Old crackpot."

"Simpleton child."

"Raisen skin."

"Cry baby."

"Senile coot."

"Stupid boy."

"Bay watch wannabe."

"Cripple."

"Grey-haired skeleton."

"Look in the mirror. I'm not the only one with grey hair."

"At least I don't brush my teeth with the toilet brush!"

"At least I'm still able to walk without a cane."

"You smell of preservatives."

"You look like and act like a toddler."

"Well, I don't put frosting on the bottom of my cake."

"Cankerblossom."

"You're so old, you're using Shapespearian insults."

"You're so young that you're too stupid to understand them."

"Codfish."

"Ignorant worm."

"Hag."

"You're so original."

"Thanks."

"That wasn't a compliment."

"..."

"Cat got your tongue?"

"Dentures go yours?"

"OOH...That's low."

"Ha!"  

[Storei]

Glancing about the deserted house, Isi quietly moved around the hard wood floor and tried to make his way as silently as possible to the guest rooms and linen closet. Old Maasi was bound to be around here somewhere and Isi didnt want to be seen by her as he began the hording of blankets and other household items for the new arrival. The thought of the soon coming raevan kept Isi on his toes with excitement and he nearly kept himself awake every night just dreaming of what the raevan was going to look like. Sometimes, when he got eager enough, he would sketch out ideas and concepts of his raevan. Grinning widely to himself, not able to hide his excitement, Isi leaned quietly on his cane and headed to the linen closet. Opening up the wooden door softly, Isi glanced over his shoulder for any sign of the haphazard crazy senile old woman and finding no sign of her, he delved into the blankets, searching for only the softest and warmest extra blankets.
Isi had figured that if he were to have a raevan in the same general area of the home, that it would live for the first couple weeks in his own bedroom until it was comfortable to live enough on its own in the attic. And the first thing he would need, Isi decided, was his own blankets to cover up with at night.
Sadly, Isi found himself at a loss of what else to do because there wasn't really anything else he could prepare without actually knowing the raevan first. For example, what would it like? What wouldn't it like? What does it prefer? What can it not stand? Without knowing these things, the grey eyed boy was at a impasse. So Isi just did the general things to prepare.  

[Storei]

Isi had been dreading this day for a while now. But he knew it had to come sometime. So he might as well get it over with now.

Buzzing around FoodtotheMAXX, the local grocery store, in a bright red little autocart, which was a metal grocery cart and old-people scooter hybrid machine, Isi kept his brows furrowed and his eyes set forward in grim determination. His knuckles were white on the plastic handle bars, his thumb pressing the red button to give gas to the 1 mile per hour old people cart, and his teeth were firmly clentched tight. The reason he was in this abominible automobile was because of his weak legs and the fact that he couldn't very well walk and push the grocery cart and keep track of Old Maasi at the same time.
"I hate going grocery shopping," Isi muttered with extreme loathing, his eyes twitching slightly as he cruised about in his little hybrid jollopy. Old Maasi was tied to the cart with a dog leash wrapped around her wrist and she was hobbling along easily after her adopted grandchild. A stupid grin of easy entertainment was plastered onto her wrinkled sinking cheeks and she was quiet for the most part. Every few moments though, she'd turn to face him and smile that ear to ear sappy grin of hers and say something dreadfully sarcastic about their switched roles. Isi would comply with trying to run his grandmother over with the scooter cart, but he would fail because Old Maasi was much faster than the stupid piece of machinery by a landslide.
Turning into the canned food aisle, Isi scanned the shelves and passed by them. He would reach his arm up fro the handlebars, grab something he liked to eat like canned corn, peaches, beans, salsa, soup, and other delicacies, and then lean forward to place it in the basket. When he couldn't reach something, Isi was forced to plead with Old Maasi for five minutes before she would do as she was asked. While she did what she was told, Maasi would often break out into war stories and anoy the crap out of Isi.

Sadly, it took nearly two hours for the pair to get all the food they needed to last another two weeks. By the time they had passed through the produce section and the meat section, Isi was twitching madly and shooting deadly glares at all who passed by and gave him odd stares at his predicament.
"Hey," Said a man, one time, "Take this, kid. Help yourself." the man had offered Isi a twenty dollar bill.
Isi had shot up a disgusted and hurt mein of defiance and growled, "I don't accept charity."
"All I'm doing is trying to help," The man had countered, trying to stuff the bill into the cart or into Isi's hands, "Just take it. It's nothing, really."
"I DON'T." Exploded Isi, already at the end of his nerve's wits, "TAKE. CHARITY. I CAN DO IT. MYSELF." Then Isi had slammed on the gas and headed away from the man at a snail's pace. Old Maasi had wandered by, being pulled along by the dog's leash, plucked the twenty from the man's hand and stuffed it down her front into the safety of her old lady's bra.
The man had simply stared, blinked, and turned away to continue his evening of shopping with a nervous gulp.

As they finished shopping, Isi had a death grip on the black bars and couldn't pry his fingers from them until he stopped breathing so heavily. His grey eyes twitching, he pried himself form the vehicle, retrieved his crutches from the back, returned the ignition key and hobbled out after the helper boy who was carrying all the grocery bags.
"I hate grocery shopping," Isi muttered again.