|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 12:00 pm
Finding Irizu
Opec was on his way home from his last appointment of the night, having just disengaged himself from the Pondoyan ship and changed back into his Gaian clothes.
He could not, however, be terribly certain as to why he was traipsing through an ancient graveyard in the middle of the night. His initial thoughts had been that a shortcut was present...but the amount of time he'd been passing decaying trees and crumbling gravestones tended to differ. He admired his surroundings with a kind of morbid fascination, though, a small smile playing on his lips. He'd be able to find his way home no matter where he ended up.
Suddenly, though, his pant leg snagged on something. He gave a small snort of surprise and peered back.
There was nothing, only the light fluttering of fabric.
The young man shrugged and continued on...for a brief moment. Once again, his clothing snagged. He made no move to look back, however, and simply continued tugging forward.
This was beginning to frighten him.
His ears folded back and he made a small noise, finally giving into the urge to turn. As he did, though, he wished terribly that he hadn't.
There was still nothing for his pants to be caught on, but there was a small indent by the hem, as if made by a hand. Opec cried out in fear and grabbed his own leg, tugging until he fell backward, sprawled on the ground.
He watched in terror as the nearest blank grave marker flew from the ground and began to tremor violently upon the grass nearby. Oh, Gods, how was this happening?!
The marker shuddered, shook, and leaped across the ground for quite some time before stopping completely.
Opec hesitated, watching and waiting for another shudder of movement.
There was nothing.
The Viishani approached slowly, crawling on hands and knees to get a better look at the possessed bit of stone.
And then came the noise.
It was like a silent train smacking headlong into a brick wall, or an explosion of world-destroying proportions. It made Opec's ears ring, at the very least.
The rectangular slab of stone had exploded in two, pieces flying in opposite directions. One floated at and absurdly fast pace off into the distance, while the other careened forward, clipping the side of the unfortunate Viishani's head.
The last thing Opec saw was tiny droplets of his own blood smattering the surface of the stone...and then all went black.
---
Opec awakened some time later, the wound in his skull fused shut and his confusion and terror returning completely. He attempted to sit up, but found that something denied him this right: a small weight on his chest.
He looked down and gasped in surprise.
On his torso lay a small, tan-skinned child, sleeping happily and sucking her thumb. Opec reached down slowly to wipe flecks of his blood from the child's shoulder, soon finding that they were simply freckles and awakening the infant.
The baby looked up at him with wide, brilliant eyes, hand still shoved between her lips. She sucked on the digit with a tedious rhythm, blinking very rarely.
"Irizu" the air breathed.
Opec automatically assumed that he had gone insane.
"Irizu," he repeated and gathered the baby into his arms, standing and once more beginning on his way home. Oh, yes, he was still confused...but he thought better in a familiar place.
A child.
My my my, what ever would he do with a child?
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 1:48 pm
Babies Say SKREEE!
Isaiah sat on the sidewalk curb with a dourly anxious look on his face, peering down at something currently wiggling around in a blanket-stuffed box.
He stared at it for a moment or two, then back down at the ground, his expression unchanging.
For the first time in his life, he wished Oliver would unexpectedly show up to bother him. He, at least, might know what to do.
The thing in the box belched and burbled, making Isaiah look over at it again.
Opec sighed, walking down the street with Irizu who simply would NOT sleep. He'd heard that babies fell asleep during car rides, but he had no car, and so he figured that walking was the next best thing. He passed Isaiah without giving him so much as a passing glance.
Irizu, on the other hand, was not one to miss much of anything. She wriggled about and peered over Opec's shoulder, a curly mop of hair and entirely-awake eyes appearing suddenly.
She saw the box and gave a big baby-grin.
Under different circumstances, Isaiah most likely would've tried to get a quick meal off the guy walking by. But by now he was overtired, his appetite diminished from subjection to Critter Fluids and Odors, and damn it all he just wasn't in the mood.
He sighed, and winced when the thing in the box emitted a very long, loud shriek.
"What?" he said, seizing the box and pulling it onto his lap. "What else do you want from me?"
The thing, which was in fact a tan-skinned and brilliant-eyed baby, gave a toothless smile and reached her hands upwards.
"Fine, fine..." Iz said dully. He lifted the baby out of the box and held her awkwardly, his expression defeated.
Irizu gave a suddenly high-pitched yawp, reaching for the box in vain.
Opec's ears flew back as he gave a small cry of surprise. His ears rung and he picked the child up, holding her out in front of him.
"What, Baby?"
Irizu gurgled and smashed a hand against his face.
"That is not an answer."
The girl then looked past the large grey form in her way, reaching for the figures on the sidewalk and shrieking again.
The baby in Isaiah's hands wiggled and writhed and squalled, reaching out towards the other baby.
"NYAAAH," she said, sensibly.
Isaiah growled.
"No. Bad critter. Shh," he said, trying to sound authoritative. "Bad baby. Hush."
His attention drawn to the new shrieking, he gave a wince and looked 'round.
"Hey," he said, a note of desperation in his voice as he looked at the stranger. "Want a baby?"
"I already have one, thank y--" Opec said, turning. His ears flipped up as he saw the young man and smiled.
Cute baby.
Cute boy.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" the freckled baby happily squalled
"Nngh!" Opec exclaimed and held Irizu off to one side, "You want the other baby? Fine. Have a box." Realizing that it would be rather rude to simply place his baby in the poor guy's arms, he instead put her in his box.
"NYEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Isaiah groaned, halfhearted hopes dashed into the ground. He made a small noise of protest as the new critter was put in the first critter's box, and stared at the little one currently kicking like mad in his arms.
"I swear, she's rabid," he said dolefully. He glanced up at the new guy speculatively. Huh. Nifty ears. Kinda cute, too....
Isaiah looked back at the baby to distract himself.
"Uziri, please, hush..."
Uziri burbled and writhed, frantically grabbing for the baby now inhabiting her box. She could see what she wanted and she wanted to be put down now.
"Nyeeeeeeeeh!"
"Fine! Jeez! Here, go play with the other one," Iz said, setting Uziri down in the box and drawing back, as though afraid putting the two together would trigger an explosion.
Irizu burbled laid a hand on the other baby's cheek.
Her sister's cheek.
"Bllllrp," she burbled and grinned.
Opec took a seat beside the man on the curb, watching the babies.
"Uziri, huh?" he nodded toward the infant that had claimed him, "Irizu. Funny, eh? How you wind up with her?"
Had he not been paying so much attention to the man, he probably would have noticed how alike the children were in physical appearance.
"Nrfft!"
Flashing another toothless smile, Uziri grabbed at Irizu's hair and gave it a tug. Sister-thing! Letting go, Uziri poked and prodded Irizu, bent on investigating every bit of the other child she could reach.
"Huh, yeah, I guess so. Heh," Isaiah said, trying to pretend enthusiasm at the little discovery. At Opec's question he sighed.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he said dryly. "Weird little...wiggly-shadowed baby-creature..."
Too involved in his brooding, Isaiah didn't even bother to look at the box.
Irizu giggled and drummed lightly upon her sister's head, grinning and burbling nonsense.
Opec blinked. He wasn't used to people being so downright irritating. Oh well.
"Well!" he said, trying to keep upbeat, "Children certainly come about oddly in Gaia, hm?" He went for the box then and peered within at the wriggling masses.
The same skin tone, the same eyes, the same hair...
"...um..."
"Yeah, they do," Isaiah said, glancing over at Opec. "Um what?"
He followed the other man's gaze, eyes flicking over the contents of the box.
"...uh..."
Uziri laughed, a high-pitched sound bordering on a shriek. Awfully excitable, this one...
"They can't be. I mean...I don't even know where she...rock."
Isaiah was fully aware the sentence that had just come out of his mouth made little sense. He decided he didn't care. This whole situation made no sense.
Irizu gave Uziri a loving rasberry and giggled, clumsily clapping her hands together.
"Rock?" Opec questioned, looking to the man for a moment, "Yeah...a rock! It hit me in the head and then..." He made a frantic arm movement toward the box.
"And then this."
Abruptly tuckered out, Uziri flopped against Irizu, clinging.
Isaiah made a face, patting Opec on the shoulder sympathetically.
"Jeez, that sucks. The head-hitting, I mean...my rock kinda...followed me home," he said. "And smashed through my front door."
He paused, looking thoughtful.
"I really should get to fixing that hole..."
Irizu patted her sister's back happily, the toothless grin still playing at her lips.
"Eh. I healed," Opec shrugged, and then got down on one knee. Only then could he discern in the darkness which child was effectively his.
And she was being clung-to.
"Baby?" he asked, poking her shoulder, "Baby Zu-zu? Wanna go home?"
Irizu giggled and grabbed a handful of Opec's hair, tugging hard.
"NNGH..."
Uziri looked up at the new fuzzy thing in interest, eyes wide.
Pretty.
She reached up, grabbing at hair and trying to pull the fuzzy's head down to her level.
"Uziri! No! Bad baby!" Isaiah said, grabbing at the girl's hands and trying to pry them loose. "Jeez, I'm really sorry about this, she loves pulling hair..."
"It's pretty hair, what can I say? The ladies can't resist me," Opec said, giggling and smiling and disallowing himself to be pulled further.
"C'mon, Zu-zu. We're gonna go home now." With those words he brought the freckled baby up into his arms and pried the other's hands from his hair.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEIEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEK!"
"JESUS CHRIST!"
Uziri made a distressed gurgling noise as both the fuzzy and the sister-thing were taken from her reach. Her face screwed up into an angry expression, and she shrieked her protest.
"Uziri, please, shh, shh, I'll get you...um...ice cream. Candy? Pony? God, what do you want?" Isaiah said, the desperate note creeping back into his voice. He looked up at the man despairingly.
"I don't think they want to be separated," he said, stating the obvious.
"I realize that," Opec shrugged, "but there's nothin' we can do. Unless you want another baby." With those words, he began off, Irizu still shrieking bloody murder in his arms.
He disliked Humans, and having to spend too much time around one would certainly drive him insane. The child would grow out of it, he was sure.
"AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIEEIIIIIE!"
Isaiah, temper already short due to the baby and all her accompanying noises (and smells....oh good heavens), stood with a screaming and now crying Uziri in his arms, teeth bared.
"Yeah, well, fine. Big whoop, I'm probably just gonna...um...eat her or something later. I like baby blood," he said to the man's retreating back. "Yeah...I uh...I kill kids all the time. You better keep...ah, whatever."
He sat back down, Uziri still in his arms. He glanced down at her.
"I didn't mean that," he said to her in an undertone. "Really. I wouldn't. I don't eat small children."
Far from consoled, Uziri let out another wail, tears and snot running down her face.
Opec caught the statement, but also the undertone, and therefore resisted the maternal urge to rend the young man's flesh and steal his baby.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
"Baby! You're gonna make me deaf. We'll find them again, kay? I promise!"
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDTHHHHPBLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Irizu shrieked in reponse, still reaching backward over Opec's shoulder, mucus and saline dirpping from various orifaces and the glowing skull on her necklace trembling slightly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2006 6:56 pm
A Second Meeting
Another slow night.
Isaiah wasn't bothering to do much of anything tonight anyway, so he supposed it didn't matter. Uziri was pacified in the truest sense, gnawing at the gaudily-colored thing Isaiah had stuck like a cork into her mouth sometime earlier. So Isaiah sat, with his baby-in-a-box, waiting for prey to walk by but in no hurry to chase after them.
He wondered briefly where Oliver was...
Opec stood aboard the interstellar ship, waiting for the force field to drop so he could be on his way. Irizu lay in the fabric cradle around his shoulder, bunched up all cute-like and sucking on a gold-coloured dummy.
Master had not seen the child; a very good thing.
The Viishnu continued down the street one the field dropped, feet bare and in his shimmery red robe, not caring what he looked like and just wanting to get the Hell home. He idly reached back and tied his hair up in a strip of fabric.
Isaiah yawned, picking half-dead dandelion flowers out of the cracks of the sidewalk and braiding the stems together idly.
"Wow...boring night, huh Zee?" he asked the baby, twirling the dandelion flowers around.
Uziri made a muffled kind of "zzzzlrgh" noise, and kept gnawing on her pacifier.
"You're a stunning conversationalist," Iz said dryly.
"You're talking to a larva."
Isaiah looked up.
"You've been scarce," he said to Oliver, eyebrows raised. Oliver shrugged, taking a seat on the curb beside him.
"I got busy. Any perspective meals about?"
Isaiah snorted, waving a hand around. The street was pretty much deserted.
"Someone'll show up," Oliver said, shrugging. He glanced at Uziri.
"You realize she has a glowing tentacle-shadow."
"Yup."
"Okay then."
"Prrbllrp..." Irizu gurgled and attempted to turn over in her sleep, only succeeding in swinging her sling to one side and settling into her previous position.
Opec smiled fondly and ran a finger over the infant's smooth forehead. This whole fathering business was ending up a lot more satisfying than he'd thought. Sure, he had to take Irizu to work, and yes, he had to hide her.
And then there was the smells.
But even then, he liked it.
"Don't poke her."
"I'm not poking."
"Yes you are."
"No I'm not."
"Oliver."
"Fine, fine."
Isaiah pushed Uziri's box a good distance away from Oliver, frowning. Sure, he didn't know what the hell do to with a baby. He'd had to bring her hunting with him every night, and had to stay awake all day while she made ungodly noises and odors.
Still. He had to admit, she was kinda cute.
"So," Oliver said, taking Isaiah's dandelion braid and playing with it now that his baby-poking had been interrupted. "What's the little larva's name?"
"Uziri," Iz said, grabbing for his mutilated plantlife and sighing as Oliver held it toying above his head. "Aren't you a little old for 'keep-away'?"
"Nope."
"Jerk."
"Wuss."
Isaiah sniffed, returning his attention to the street. Someone was bound to walk by sooner or later...
And someone did.
Unfortunately, that someone was Opec and his baby-package.
He didn't notice the Vampires on the street, it being much darker now than it had been the first time he'd met one of them. He simply continued past silently, almost seeming to float above the ground.
"C'mon. Reach for it."
"No."
"C'mooon."
Isaiah sighed again, and halfheartedly reached an arm straight up, blindly grasping for the dandelions.
"Oh no, whatever will I do," he said in a monotone, still scanning the street for movement. "Please. Not my precious street-weeds."
Oliver, mildly entertained by now, spotted the fresh meat before Isaiah. He dropped the dandelions and stood, grinning slightly.
"Dibs."
"Huh? Oh, there's...wait! You can't call dibs!"
Oliver looked down at Isaiah, shrugging.
"Yes I can. Dibs. See? Did it again."
Isaiah growled.
"c**k."
"Hey, watch your language. Delicate ears are listening," Oliver chided. Iz snorted and ******** you, and ******** your dibs," he said (though he kept his voice low so Uziri wouldn't hear). "I'm hungry."
He pushed Oliver out of the way, eyes fixed on the new arrival. A woman, he supposed. Great. Fine. As long as it could bleed, he didn't care what it was.
Oliver sighed, picking up the forgotten Uziri and trailing after.
Opec heard footsteps behind him, and he paused briefly, ears swiveling.
Ah well, he figured, maybe they'd go away if he kept walking.
And so that's precisely what he did, hips swinging lazily from side to side. He pulled his robe a bit tighter around him against the cold as he gladly spotted his apartment building in the distance.
Isaiah's attempts at stealth were effectively ruined by an ill-timed growl of his stomach. He sighed, prodding his abdomen in irritation.
"Fine," he muttered. "Swoop in and bite. Jeez."
He crept closer, mouth watering by now. A guttural growl rattled in his throat and he slunk out of the shadows, reaching for the woman's shoulder.
"Iz, are you gonna pull the Dracula bullshit or are you gonna ******** eat already?" Oliver called, unnecessarily loud. Uziri burbled in his arms and he shushed her. "Hush, larva. I'm busy antagonizing your father."
Isaiah took a deep breath and counted to ten.
"Maybe if you hadn't just interrupted, Oliver- oh, for the love of Pete. Great. Cover's blown. Thanks. This is just a ******** bust," Isaiah snapped, throwing up his hands in exasperation. "Now she's probably gonna run."
"Then catch her, dipshit."
"Then catch her, dipshit," Isaiah parroted snarkily, grabbing the woman by the shoulder. "Cripes. I can't stand him sometimes...hey, you. Hold still."
Opec smiled and turned to face the young man...who he now knew to be either a Vampire or an absolute freak.
"I thought I recognized your voice."
The fact that they had called him a 'she' and planned to eat him didn't bother him in the least.
"Ohmygodit'syouI'msorry."
The words came out jumbled together and Isaiah let go of Opec quickly, blushing.
"So, I'm guessing this means you're not eating. Fine. Dibs," Oliver said, striding forward and making a beeline for Opec. Isaiah made a startled noise and swung an arm out, catching him in the stomach.
"No!"
"Ow."
"Sorry."
"I'm going to push you down stairs for that," Oliver said, wheezing slightly. "Here. Take your larva."
He shunted Uziri into Isaiah's arms, looking annoyed and rubbing his stomach ruefully.
"b*****d," he snapped. Isaiah blushed deeper.
Opec smiled to the blue-eyed man and flipped his hair to one side, craning his neck into a rather vulnerable position.
"By all means, don't let him stop you."
Isaiah blanched, shaking his head and gesturing wildly in warning.
"Wait - don't - Oliver, waitasecond-"
Oliver wasn't listening. Pushing past Isaiah, with an air of cool indifference he bit into Opec's neck hard. After a rather self-indulgent amount of time, he stepped back and idly wiped a bit of blood off his chin.
"You want a turn?" he asked, turning 'round to look at Isaiah. He took one look at Iz's expression and laughed. "I'll take that as a no."
Isaiah glared at Oliver, shaking his head.
"I just...you don't....what the....never mind," he said, reigning his temper into check. It took a minute. "How many times have I asked you not to eat my acquaintances."
"You're taking this a little out of context."
"Shut. Up."
"It's alright," Opec smiled reassuringly, "It doesn't hurt me none." He wagged his head and his hair fell back into place, the seeping blood visibly climbing individual strands.
"You sure you don't want any?"
"No," Isaiah said firmly, glaring at Oliver. "I'm fine."
He glanced at the injury Oliver had inflicted, meaning to apologize, but trailed off into silence as he saw the blood moving on its own. Huh. Just a tad bit weird, right there.
Uziri, who up to this point had been happily gnawing away at her pacifier, suddenly decided she didn't like it anymore and spit it out. The spitty thing rolled clumsily off her chest, onto Isaiah's arm, and plummeted to the ground.
"Ugh, Zee...I just got that for you..."
"You can wash it with hot water," Opec shrugged, "I mean, at least I think. It's what Master used to do."
"Bllltph?"
Opec looked to the wriggling thing in the sling around his shoulder.
"Precisely."
"Plth," Irizu agreed and maneuvered her way to a sitting position, swaying uneasily and staring at the Vampires.
"PWEEEEEE!"
"I guess," Isaiah said, wrinkling his nose as he picked up the drool-covered pacifier. "Bleh..."
He wiped it off on the tail of his shirt and pocketed it, looking at Uziri in puzzlement.
"You liked it a minute ago," he said, trying to be reasonable.
"Nrrf," Uziri reasonably replied. At the sudden 'pwee', she wiggled and struggled, trying to shift herself around. Sister-thing? She thought she heard Sister-thing!
"Easy, easy," Iz said, shifting his hold on the baby. "Look. There she is."
"NYAAAAAHAAA!"
Oliver winced at the sudden influx of baby noise.
"Jeez....can't you...I dunno...mute her or something?"
Isaiah glared at him again.
"Plug it, Oliver."
"NEEEEE!"
"Ah, jeez..."
Irizu wiggled, almost falling headlong out of the sling and yelping in dismay as she was stopped. That was most definitely her sister-thing.
Opec twisted and pulled the wriggling infant from the sling, having quite a time trying to keep her from careening to the pavement.
"EEEE!"
"Mind if she borrows your box again?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure."
Realizing the box was still sitting lonely on the curb, Iz shunted Uziri back into Oliver's arms and jogged back to go get it. Oliver watched him go, then turned back to Opec.
"Pleased to meet you," he said. "If I'm right by guessing, he didn't introduce himself the first time. He's Isaiah. I'm Oliver."
He paused, looking down at Uziri. The baby looked back up at him, blinking like an owl.
"This is Larva."
Irizu made angry constipated baby noises and reached for Sister-thing, brow furrowed in the deepest concentration.
"No, he didn't," Opec nodded, smiling down at Uziri, "I'm Opec. 'Dinner', if you prefer. And this is Larva Two."
Oliver nodded, nearly interested in the conversation.
"Heh. Thanks for that, by the way. I was starved," he said. Isaiah jogged back, interrupting.
"Got it," he said, setting the box down on the sidewalk. "Gimme Uziri."
The big thing set Uziri in her box, and the baby fidgeted. Discontent, and reached up blindly towards Sister-thing.
"Nyeeeeeh," she said, face screwing up and reddening.
"No problem. Feel free to ask any t--"
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEI!"
"Alright, alright!" Opec stopped mid-sentence to place Irizu in the box beside Uziri.
Irizu's emotions did a full three-sixty as she sat up in the box, wobbling before falling onto and snuggling her Sister-thing.
Opec clicked his tongue.
"Yanno, they look a lot alike."
Uziri, extraordinarily happy to see Sister-thing again, did the only logical thing possible. She went limp as a rag and fell onto her sister, clinging.
Isaiah watched the little reunion, smiling despite himself. God, but that was cute.
"They do...too much to just be coincidence," he said. "If yours didn't have the freckles I wouldn't be able to tell them apart..."
Oliver snorted.
"You could always ID them by smell," he said dryly. Iz graced him with a sigh and an eyeroll.
"Mine hit me in the head with a rock," Opec laughed slightly, watching the infants fondly, "If I hadn't bled on her, I don't think she'd HAVE freckles." He paused.
"But that's just me."
Irizu made a muffled noise and wriggled slightly before submitting to the Sister-thing and patting her belly.
Iz blinked.
"Rock? Like...floaty-stalker rock?" he asked. "I mean...'cause that's kinda what happened to me. I never realized being followed home by a rock could actually be creepy..."
He sighed.
"And she mashed a hole in my door."
Uziri, impossibly amused with any and all goings-on, settled against her Sister-thing pillow and gave a high pitched giggle at Isaiah's words. She'd heard him say the word 'door' enough times to tie it to his funny way of turning red and shouting and banging against a thing with a hole and shouting again when what he banged against the thing banged against his fingers instead.
"Kinda. More like...spasming exploding rock. Close enough," Opec nodded, and then peered toward the girls in the box, "Yah think maybe they're related?"
Irizu didn't understand the joke, but giggled anyway. If Sister-thing was laughing, something funny must have happened.
"Related...?"
Oliver heaved a sigh.
"Good Christ, but you're slow," he said to Isaiah in a deeply belittling tone. Iz bristled.
"What the ******** that supposed to mean?"
"You see 'em side by side and you're just now dawning on the possibility they're related."
"You didn't even know either of 'em existed until five minutes ago!"
"Details, details."
"Huh!" Opec grinned and lifted Irizu from the box, giving her and the other baby a good once-over, "Maybe she's the other half of the rock!"
Irizu burbled in complete confusion and mashed her hand into Opec's eye socket.
Realizing not only was her pillow gone, but it was gone without so much as a by-your-leave, Uziri glared up at the collection of Taller Things and loosed an angry shriek.
"Yeesh! Alright, hold on, hold on..."
Isaiah picked up the baby cautiously, creeping over towards Opec and turning the girl in his arms so she could keep her companion in view.
"I guess they could be," he said, trying to maintain his grip as Uziri squirmed. "It's either that or the most unlikely set of coincidences I've ever heard of."
Oliver gave a derisive snort.
Opec looked to Isaiah and felt an odd kind of smile creep up onto his face.
"Quite," he nodded, and then forced a yawn, "Well. It's been a long night. I should probably go home." He shifted Irizu's weight before placing her back in her sling.
Irizu shrieked in anger, reaching out toward Sister-thing.
Opec pretended to ignore the cries and shrugged. Now they'd have to see each other again. These Vampires barely seemed the type to be able to deal with loud babies.
"See you again some time?"
Uziri realized, in her limited capacity to reason, that screaming wasn't going to get her what she wanted. She let out a despairing gurgling and reached out towards Sister-thing, face crumpling and tears welling in her eyes. Her shadow-like...attachment, it could be called... writhed in misery behind her.
Isaiah nodded, shouldering Uziri and trying to ignore the scratching whack she delivered to his face.
"Yeah, see you around," he said, grinning slightly. Oliver, expression impassive, gave a nod.
"Bye," he said. After a beat he added, "Nice to meet you."
To Isaiah's slight surprise, the words weren't nearly as apathetic as he'd expected them to be.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Dec 25, 2006 11:06 pm
Lara checked her list again once again on her trip to the next house, gift giving excursion was definitely taking longer than she expected. Apparently the next name to appear on her roll was a spirit named Irizu…hadn’t she already been to that house? Scanning her record she discover she had in fact not already been here but to the child’s twin named Uziri. Twin spirits, how cute Lara laughed to herself. She wondered on her way to the next house, how a spirit would be able to split into two and create two children. This thoughts kept her mind off the pain in her legs until she reached the home of Irizu and Open and dropped a letter and present into the spirit child and her guardian’s letter slot.
the card To Opec and Irizu Let me commence my letter by wishing you a merry Christmas and happy holidays. i hope that during the jovial season that both luck and good humour find their way to you and Irizu. For both of you I wish that your Christmas desires become real and that you have a marvellous celebration. In the essence of this certain celebratory time of year, i have present here for Irizu. I hope that this stone will bring you success and goof fortune for the coming year. Next to this note is an Amber power bead Necklace, Amber is said to bring a care free, sunny disposition, Promotes good luck and success, Dissolve oppositions and Alleviates teething pain in babies. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 9:14 am
A Calm Moment
Opec sat in the ballroom of his home on an ornate antique chair, allowing his daughter to play with his hair. That was it, wasn't it? She was his daughter now. He peered down at the burbling baby's arm and smiled at the bracelet he'd looped around twice. It had slid halfway up her arm, but it was pretty nonetheless.
The Viishnu bounced his knee and thusly the baby perched upon it and reflected on...everything.
First there was the random gift for Irizu shoved into his mailbox. It had taken him a few days to notice that there was anything there at all, as nobody ever sent him mail. He had made a decision then and there to find this person and pay them back, although certainly not in the traditional way. Regardless of method, it wasn't right for any slave to take a gift and not give anything in return.
Then, of course, there was the issue of the vampires he'd met on the street. Isaiah and...Oliver? Yes, that seemed right. He knew that Isaiah had somehow come across Irizu's twin, and that in and of itself made them obligated to meet occasionally, but there was something else. When he thought of Isaiah, something funny fluttered inhis chest. It wasn't just a momentary thing either, like the flutter that accompanies the pain from work, but a long-lasting thing. It often continued spreading until after he'd stopped thinking at all. It made him smile, too.
He smiled now, peering down at the darling child in his lap. Oh, how lucky he was in life. It was wonderful, really, how things kept getting better. He bounced his knee again, coaxing a happy little gurgle from Irizu. Her shimmery aura wiggled a bit, casting an odd purple glow against his tail.
Ah, family.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 2:32 pm
 Irizu and Uziri. Spirits with very deep roots. They appear very similar in form and spirit, but as we all know, appearances are only skin deep. Find out where their origins truely lay, either through ritual or experimentation. And let us hope no one gets hurt. (Note: This growth quest can either be done together or seperately, whichever way you are comfortable with.) 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Incantation Esprit Captain
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 7:24 pm
Infant -> Toddler quest - Origins
Isaiah and Uziri had started out on this venture outdoors to see if they could find either pleasant company, entertainment, or in a worse-case scenario Oliver, but found that all three did not want to make themselves available. So, Iz was currently wandering around with Uziri's box in his arms, trying to coax a real word out of the baby.
"C'mon, Zee. Say 'dada."
"Vlud."
"No. Not 'vlud.' Dada."
"Vlud."
Isaiah sighed, shaking his head despairingly.
"Fine. Be that way."
Opec's presence was preceded by the sound of plastic wheels over loose asphalt. It was really a very particular sound when you got down to it.
"Bweh."
"Oh, I agree completely."
"Mrrrgh, bah."
"Mm-hm! That t--ISAIAH!" the Viishani waved from where he most likely could not be seen and began sprinting, a twin-sized stroller containing only a single child and a diaper bag rolling before him.
"EEEEEEEEEEEE!" Irizu shouted gleefully.
Isaiah jumped nearly out of his skin and wheeled around, certain he was either going to be rushed, mugged or beaten senseless. It took a minute to process what he was seeing - the stroller he noticed first, then the one pushing it.
"Oh! Hey!"
Uziri jolted, wrestling with her blankets to turn around and stand in the box.
"BYAAA!"
Opec giggled and only stopped running when the front wheel of the stroller was about to ram into Isaiah's shins, and even then his breaking system was sketchy at best.
One could tell he had been working. He hadn't changed out of his robes yet.
Irizu squawked and held her arms up to Sister-thing, clenching and unclenching her fists.
"MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH!"
Opec removed Irizu's bag from the other seat and slung it over his shoulder, offering the other for Uziri-placement.
An oddly sweet smile remained plastered on his face.
Isaiah grinned widely, shifting Uziri's box in his arms and setting it down.
"Jeez, scare me half to death," he said easily. He briefly wondered why Opec was dressed as he was, but a vague reasonable guess surfaced a beat later and he decided to let it drop. They were nifty robes, anyway.
"BYAAYAYAAAYA!"
"Yeesh! Alright, Zee, gimme a second..."
Iz lifted the baby out of her box and set her carefully into the stroller with a grateful glance at Opec.
"Thanks. I need to stop carryin' her in that box..." he said, grinning still as he hefted the thing back into his arms.
"You really do," Opec laughed slightly and checked the buckles holding the infants in place, just in case.
"So," he said as he began walking in the way he'd come, "How about that dinner, huh?"
"PTTTTTTTLBTH!" Irizu blew an affectionate raspberry and placed one hand on either side of Sister-thing's face.
Isaiah laughed.
"Hey, it's what my mom did," he said, tucking the box under one arm. "Improvisation is an excellent way to cover up being cheap."
Walking in stride beside Opec, he blinked in surprise until the memory from another night surfaced, and he nodded. The beginnings of a familiar embarrassed blush were fighting to surface, but he covered it with aplomb.
"Sure!" he said. "I could do with some good company for a change of pace. 'Sides, Zee'd kill me if we ditched you guys."
Uziri laughed in delight at the sound Sister-thing made and tried to copy it, though all that came out were a couple spit bubbles.
"Vlud!" she said, bouncing in the stroller seat.
Opec giggled again.
"So," he asked innocently enough, turning coyly to look at Isaiah over his shoulder, "Would you prefer a hunt, or me, hm?"
Irizu gasped! Uziri...she had just...spoken words of paramount wisdom!
"VLUD!"
Isaiah made a small choked sound but quickly recovered.
"Um. Uh," he said intelligently, head ducking down. He forced himself to look up again, playing nonchalant.
"...You, I...I guess. I mean, I don't guess. You'd be fine. I mean. Um," he said, voice at least audible but his response on the unsteady side.
Uziri nodded hard, rejoicing that someone else understood her at last.
"VLUD!" she said importantly, nodding again.
Opec thusly stopped the stroller in a sweeping, dramatic fashion and moved beside Isaiah, flipping his hair off of one side of his neck.
"Bon appetit!"
Irizu nodded, completely un-phased by the sudden end of movement.
"Na-ah eetha HE-uh"
Not ready for this, Isaiah stumbled and nearly tripped. He had the gift of making a fool of himself almost every time he ventured outdoors, but Opec seemed to have the ability to make this gift go into overdrive.
"Um..."
Giving a quick look around to make sure no one was looking, Isaiah relented and nodded, pretending he wasn't growing strangely more embarrassed by the second.
"Okay..."
Forcing himself to calm down, Isaiah took a deep breath before edging closer and tentatively biting into Opec's neck. At the first taste of blood everything else in his mind was forcibly shunted away, and Isaiah started to feed.
Uziri threaded her fingers together and scrunched up her face as though trying to ward of a sneeze as she listened thoughtfully.
"Seesee bweh," she said. "Iss awn' Foofoo, awn' Seesee."
Opec smiled and made a small noise, biting his lower lip to keep from doing anything stupid. His fists clenched and unclenched, simply for something to do.
It was odd to enjoy the manual removal of random bodily fluids, he knew, but that didn't matter.
Irizu blinked at Sister-thing, and then blinked up at Fluffy Man. Oh no! What was Sister-thing-caretaker doing to him?!
"EEEEEEEEE!" she shrieked, pointing.
Effectively dead to the world as he fed, Isaiah's eyes closed slowly and he bit down harder, relishing the taste of unfamiliar blood. It was always hard for him to think and eat at the same time, so he'd long since learned not to bother struggling with both at once. He kept the vague notion in mind that he wasn't supposed to take too much from this one...but the notion soon abandoned him.
Uziri blinked, confused, and twisted 'round in her seat to look up. Iz-Man was doing his thing, the thing she'd seen dozens of times.
"Bneh," she said reassuringly, unimpressed by the display.
Opec's breathing soon became labored and a newfound weakness in his limbs caused him to do what else but clamp two fingers down on Isaiah's nose.
Hey, it worked with puppies.
Irizu seemed close to tears. She burbled unhappily as a little dark line ran down Fuzzy Man's neck.
"Gnnk!"
Isaiah came back to himself at once and jerked away, blushing worse than ever.
"OhjeezI'msorryIdidn'tmeanto," he said, words run together in panic. His growing distress didn't keep him from licking his lips, however. Whatever the price had just been, he freely admitted it had been worth it.
Uziri made cooing sounds in response, trying to console her poor Sister-thing.
"Nbaah," she said insistently.
Opec rolled his neck as his blood visibly climbed back into the wound from which it had been removed, refusing to exit any longer.
"No, it's fine," he smiled and nodded, "My people don't need their blood. Not really, anyway." He itched a bit at the puncture wounds, and then stopped abruptly. Crap. Lips had touched skin...
"Plllllth," Irizu said, attention suddenly diverted, as she pointed to a cemetery the group was now passing.
Home!
"If you say so," Iz said uncertainly, looking at him worriedly at the abrupt halt. "What, what is it?"
Uziri glanced 'round, and loosed a shriek. She pointed alongside Irizu, bouncing again. She knew that place!
"Nothing," Opec said, attempting to smile with a hand raised self-consciously to his neck, "Just...broke a little rule is all...huh?" He turned down to the shrieking infants.
Following their tiny fingers, he spotted the one place he'd really rather not revisit.
"Remember how I told you about that flying rock?"
"NYAAAAH!"
"It was in there."
Isaiah shifted uncomfortably, wondering if he'd done something he wasn't supposed to. He didn't want to get Opec in trouble...
"Flying...oh. Oh yeah," he said, glad for the subject change as he looked at the cemetery. "Huh... looks kinda neat, truth be told."
"VLUD! VLUUUD!"
Opec's usual sly grin replanted itself and he grabbed Isaiah's hand.
"C'mon. Let's go see it."
Without awaiting a response, he bolted through the slightly-opened front gates, expertly steering the stroller before him.
"YEEEEEEEEEE!" Irizu giggled, clinging to her sister, "YEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
It didn't take long to reach the spot where the rock had exploded in two.
"It was right here," Opec explained, pointing to a high-raised headstone, "I swear. It was." He looked about them, though. Just in case.
Irizu leaned forward with a grunting sound, straining against her belly strap, and grabbed the stone with both hands.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" she skreeked, attempting to wiggle it out.
"What the...?"
"EEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
"Doesn't look like much," Isaiah said, giving the place a curious glance. "I wonder why...hmm? Zee, jeez, what's wrong?"
What's wrong? What's wrong, he had the nerve to ask! Uziri gave a loud hmph and kept struggling against with one hand on the belt that kept her strapped into the stroller, reaching out towards the stone with the other.
"NYAAAYA!"
Opec squatted to get a better look at the stone, more to sate his own curiosity than anything else.
"Charlise Na Danon," he read aloud and shrugged, "Never heard of it. Her. Him."
"Beloved Daughter"
"Her."
"BWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
"Sounds kind of French," Isaiah noted, kneeling down beside Opec and squinting at the inscription. "Huh....doesn't say anything about anyone else in the grave with her...maybe she was pregnant when she died or something."
Isaiah frowned at the morbidity of the thought, glancing at the still-struggling twins.
"BYAAAAAAAA!"
Opec was, needless to say, deeply disturbed by the twins' reaction to the stone. They'd most definitely come from a blank stone from this very pl--
"Isaiah?" he asked, pointing to the blank footstone.
It was cracked in half.
And the right side was smattered with something dark.
Irizu's attention was averted to the ground-imbedded stone.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
"What the...huh."
Isaiah knelt closer to the stone, eyeing the dark substance and glancing back at the twins.
"That yours, or someone else's, y'think?" he said to Opec, pointing at it. "I can't tell."
Uziri, yanking more fiercely then ever at the belt-strap, gave a frustrated howl. She wanted out of this stupid stroller now!
"Bnnnngh! BAAAA!"
Opec poked a dark stain.
It wiggled away.
"Mine."
Irizu wasn't sure what, exactly, she planned to do when she got out of the stroller, but she wanted OUT!
Opec peered back at the headstone.
"Do you have a computer?"
Since he'd very recently made a meal of it, and had never quite gotten used to what Opec's blood did, Iz gave a slight shiver when he saw it move away. He also decided not to comment on it. At Opec's question, he shook his head at first but then hesitated, thinking.
"I...might, somewhere. I think I was using it as a doorstop at one point," he said. "It probably still works."
"Good," Opec said, standing and smiling as he shifted the bag on his shoulder, "Kindly lead the way home, hm?"
He wasn't quite sure why he was so intent on Googling the name on the stone, but he felt he somehow had to.
With one last lingering look at the stone, Isaiah beckoned for Opec to follow and started on the path leading out of the cemetery. Where had he put that ancient thing...ah well. Worse came to worst he could just break into one of the other apartments in his building and see if they had one. That tactic had worked before.
"Just be careful when you come in," Iz said. "There's like this...mountain of junk that'll topple over if you breathe on it."
Of course, it had never occurred to Isaiah to remove the junk. Just avoid it.
"Alright," Opec nodded and smiled, beginning after Isaiah. Sure, pile of junk. Whatever. He'd had one of those once.
Irizu broke out into hysterically, bawling and gasping for air as if she were dying.
They were LEAVING!
Opec gave the infants a worried look.
Uziri gave a raging squall, face crumpling. She didn't want to leave! They couldn't make her! Well....if she escaped this dratted stroller, they couldn't make her, anyway. Seeing as she was strapped in good and tight, the only option Uziri could see was to scream bloody murder in protest.
So she did.
Isaiah glanced back, hearing the racket and looking concerned.
"Jeez...."
Opec cringed in agony and folded his ears back against his head. He was liable to go deaf if they kept up, although he had all intentions to making them stop.
Irizu's face had turned a rather violent shade of crimson.
Putting his hands to his ears and wincing, Isaiah jerked his head forward, indicating Opec to follow.
"My house's like fifteen minutes from here," he half-shouted over the racket. "Maybe they'll quiet down once we're away from here."
Uziri had no intention of quieting, and she made her displeasure known with another earsplitting shriek.
Opec couldn't hear Isaiah at all, and so concentrated rather hard on his lips.
He'd either said 'fifteen' or 'fifty'. The Viishani hoped it was the former.
"BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Fifteen (excruciatingly loud) minutes later
"I think my ears are bleeding."
Kicking open his door - which still had a hole in it - Isaiah waved a hand around halfheartedly.
"Make yourself comfortable where ever it looks safe to sit," he said. "I'll go find the dinosaur and hook it up."
The house looked cheerfully unorganized in the extreme, and where moonlight filtered down from a slit-like window a thick stream of dust came into view, floating at random in and out of the light. Isaiah backtracked and flicked on the lights, and harsh halogen brightness filled the tiny space.
Not exactly a mansion, but Isaiah liked it well enough.
"NYAAAAAAAAGH!"
Opec placed the infants on the ground, ears still ringing, and peered about Isaiah's home. This wouldn't do, oh no, not at all...not for a baby, and not for Isaiah.
"Meh...meh...NYEEEEEEEEEEH!"
There was a lengthy wait as Isaiah rummaged and scavenged for the computer, and ten minutes, an unnerving crashing sound, and several curses later Iz stumbled back into the main room and set the elderly machine onto the kitchen island. He disappeared for five more minutes and retrieved the monitor and keyboard, and after struggling with a mess of tangled wires got the thing up and running at last.
"It's not too fast, but it'll work," he said, nodding in satisfaction as the computer booted up.
Opec approached the ancient machine with massive hesitation. He wasn't used to such outdated machines, no matter how few he'd seen in his life. Without removing his eyes from the screen, he gracefully sank to his knees on a chair in front of it.
It only took a half-minute of searching to find a web browser, and significantly longer to get a window to show up. He attempted numerous "g-o-l-e" names until he reached his goal arrangement of "google" and pressed Enter, once again waiting.
"So. Have you ever thought about moving out of here?"
Irizu had stopped sobbing and now saw with her hands over her eyes, sniffling.
Scrounging in the fridge for Uziri's formula, Isaiah gave the furious child a bottle and gave a sigh of relief as she took it, though she still glared up at him reproachfully.
"Huh? Oh...well," he said uncertainly, looking around the apartment. "I guess once in a while, yeah. It's the first place I ever had on my own, though. Never really crossed my mind, aside from the times the mice get in."
"Because you can move in with me," Opec said, beginning to scroll through the various results his search of 'Charlise Na Danon' brought up, "I mean, you wouldn't even know I was there. And the babies could be together. And I think it'd be healthier." He clicked on a link, found it to be entirely in Korean, and pressed Back. While he waited, he followed Isaiah's gesture and handed Irizu her bottle.
It was oddly orange-ish.
The infant took it greedily, rubbing her eye with a tiny fist.
Isaiah looked over at Opec, expression rather astounded.
"Really?" he said before he could stifle himself. "That'd...hell, that'd be great. But is your place big enough? I mean, Oliver's sure to invite himself over and it's impossible to make him leave..."
Uziri glanced at her sister's bottle, nose wrinkling at the orange color. Was Foofoo feeding her something funny? Still feeling rather sour with both of the taller things, Uziri had the grace to take her bottle out of her mouth before making a milky-mouthed gargle at both of them, expression dangerously sulky.
"Zee...don't taunt with your mouth full."
"Gnaaaarbleh.
"Yeah," Opec nodded, "It's...okay-sized. You could take my room and I could take the gallery. Oliver could take the couch when he decided to drop by." A thin smile then played on his lips.
"Or the gallery."
He then gave a snort of satisfaction as he found what may or may not haven been what he was looking for.
"Isaiah. Lookit this*."
Irizu looked to Sister-thing curiously, not removing her lips from the bottle. A Bit of viscous white-orange fluid flowed from one corner of her mouth.
She had never claimed to be a clean baby.
*'Voodoo Community Suffers Loss
Priestess Adelle Na Danon died earlier this afternoon under suspicious circumstances...
...survived by daughter Charlise Na Danon'
"That's really generous of you, Opec, thanks..." Isaiah began, trailing off as he read over Opec's shoulder. "...huh."
In his current state of struggling to comprehend what this scrap of discovery meant, Isaiah missed the smile when Oliver was mentioned.
Uziri looked at the dribble in interest, ignoring the fact it had just spilled spitty from her sister's mouth. Her own bottle seemed to pale in comparison now, it was only one color. Zee was instantly envious of the superior bottle.
"I don't mind," Opec smiled, beginning to blush slightly and not noticing it.
"Now lookit this. The stone we saw said that it was...that daughter's there," he pointed to the name, and then scrolled up to point at the publication date of the article, "and it was published a while ago, so I assume that the daughter could have died, but then there's this." He pointed to a picture of a little girl in the bottom lefthand corner.
"She was...what...six?"
He then noticed something unnerving.
"Oh...she did disappear. Two days later," he peered at the date, "That's when Irizu found me."
Irizu went a little cross-eyed as she attempted to peer down the bottle, beginning to inhale only air. She toppled backward in an attempt to bring the fluid to the n****e and ended up landing on something mooshy. Maybe a wet cardboard box? Either way, it was comfy.
"Weird," Isaiah said, leaning on Opec's shoulder and looking at the picture fixedly. "Maybe the girls are some kind of...guh. I have no idea. They're mixed up in it, that much I know. Not to good at guessing."
Uziri gave a yelp as Irizu fell over, and slid out of her seat. She felt something furry scuttle past her with a frantic squeak and she watched the little mouse scurry away into one of the bigger cracks in the wall.
"Bdaaah," she said, focusing her attentions on Irizu again. She gave an experimental poke.
"Maybe they're her," Opec said, shrugging. He looked from the picture of the daughter to the infants repeatedly, "I mean...they kinda look alike. And don't voodoo people get...possessed by spirits and stuff? Maybe the rock did."
It sounded progressively more insane as he spoke it.
Irizu's belly wiggled and she snorted a bit of her drink out her nose. She struggled to sit up and had to roll over before pulling herself onto her bum.
Her bottle dangled from her mouth.
"Bwoo," she said around the rubber n****e and poked Uziri back.
Isaiah shrugged.
"I'm not really familiar with it," he said. "I think that's what goes on. Maybe there was some angry god-thing that just decided, um, 'hey, innocent bystanders, I'll throw rocks at 'em and see what happens'."
He glanced over at the twins.
"Cripes."
Finishing off her bottle and giving a completely overdramatic belch, Uziri abandoned the empty thing and fiddled with a bit of ancient refuse on the floor - it looked as though it had once been an apple, though it had long since somehow mummified.
"Btah," she said, rolling the mummy-apple to Irizu.
"Also quite possible," Opec nodded, and then turned to the twins also. He smiled.
Irizu kicked her feet as the mummified apple rolled toward her until contact was made.
The bit of ex-apple rolled back to Uziri.
"Btttth."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 12:47 pm
Locked Out - Part 1
Opec stood at the top of the staircase in his apartment building, staring rather melevolently at his front door.
The goddamn thing wouldn't open.
He'd tried turning the knob, punching it, kicking it, and even (near the end), simply begging it to open.
Now he was just standing there, a baby in his arms.
"Pllllrth?" Irizu inquired, perplexed.
"Yes. Plerth."
"Run this by me again. You're following me...why?"
"I'm following you because I think this is a rotten idea and that you're a moral cesspit, okay?"
"Your tone indicates this surprises you on both counts."
"Shut. Up."
Isaiah fumed, walking briskly after Oliver with Uziri in his arms (the box had mysteriously disappeared - Iz blamed the mice), determined to stop his, well, couldn't exactly call him a friend - alright, his continual companion's- loathsome plans.
"It's his job."
"He's a friend of the family!"
Oliver snorted derisively.
"I offer no comment," he said tartly, poking Isaiah sharply in the face. Iz yelped and fell back a step.
"Ow," he said, looking momentarily put-out. Who poked people, for goodness sake?
"I don't care what you say. It's between me and hi- hey, there he is. Opec. HEY! OPEC!"
"Don't you dare!"
"Hm?" Opec turned and smiled, recognizing the voices echoing through the prematurely empty stairwell.
"Hi," he replied, smile growing wider and his cheeks flushing slightly pink, "Oliver, Isaiah. Fancy seeing you here." He arched a brow.
Really, why were they here?
"Can I help you?" The question was rather obviously directed toward Oliver.
"NEEEEEEEEEEEEEH!"
Isaiah noted the question's direction and pointedly jabbed Oliver in the ribs with an elbow, which earned him a hard smack upside the head.
"b*****d!" Iz hissed.
"Wuss," Oliver whispered back. Hands in his pockets and looking as apathetic as always, he took a seat on the bottom step and looked up at Opec. "So. Busy?"
"BTHAAAA!"
Opec laughed slightly.
"Actually," he said hesitantly, "I just got off of shift...BUT...I can't actually get...into my house." He motioned toward the door.
"It's locked. I don't know why."
"Mnnnnn.....MNNNNNN!"
Opec absently moved closer to Isaiah.
"Meh," Irizu smiled toothlessly.
"I could kick it in if you want," Oliver said, getting up and nudging the door with a shoe experimentally. "Looks like it'd break down pretty easy."
"As much as your gung-ho approach seems like a good idea," Iz said wryly, "Yeah. I can't even add a sarcastic remark to that."
"Go on, keep talking...I'll gladly make you eat a lightbulb later."
"Make me eat a...cripes, you're such an idiot."
"Must be contagious."
"Anyway," Iz said, forcing his attention away from bickering and back to Opec. "You could stay over my place or something. Or we could call a locksmith, either or."
"Who's propositioning now?"
"QUIET!"
"Thithaaa," Uziri said, waving back awkwardly.
"If you do that, it'll just be a...big empty room," Opec said, his mouth smooshing over to one side. He then blinked and peered at the vampirea curiously. Propositio--? Ooooh.
He grinned.
"And I appreciate the offer, but I can't really go elsewhere at night. Master forbids it." He shrugged.
"...although... Either of you have the time?"
"Eeeeethaaaa," Irizu cooed and waved excitedly with both hands. She adored these visits.
"Ah. Okay," Oliver said, not quite understanding what Opec meant but not curious enough to ask further. Isaiah on the other hand looked rather riled.
"What does he expect you to do if you're stuck, sleep on the sidewalk?" he said, more to himself than to Opec. At the question he checked his watch. "Yeah, it's seven thirty. Why?"
Uziri reached out, but Isaiah was of course standing at a distance so Sister-thing was just out of reach. Drat!
Opec gave an odd half-squeak half-bark.
"I can make it if I run."
With that vague statement, he began racing down the stairs, his hair billowing out like a deranged white river behind him.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
"Feel free to follow!" he called without turning around, "I'd love to show you my home!"
Master did not allow visitors.
Master also didn't have to know there were any.
Iz blinked, watching as Opec sped past him. He blinked again and launched into a run, following Opec close behind.
"Make it? Wait, make what?" he said, puffing for breath as he tried to keep up.
"BaaaHAAAA!"
Oliver, who'd remained standing on the stoop, slowly allowed a brow to arch before taking off after the pair, silently griping to himself and rolling his eyes.
Irizu, realizing that Sister-thing and her fuzzy man were following, began to squeal with glee every time Fuzzy Man's feet touched the road.
Opec ignored the infant's cries and focused on making himself more aerodynamic. He folded his ears back and leaned forward against the wind.
It wasn't working, but it kind of felt like it was, and that was all that mattered.
He then saw the ship on the horizon, appearing to be a large, hovering pirate ship.
Who'd'a thunk.
"That!" he called back to Isaiah and pointed, still running.
"That? That wha- oh. Um. Right."
Isaiah wasn't one for logical rationalism, finding it tedious and often more trouble than it was worth. Upon catching sight of this....what ever it was... he was at a bit of a loss of what to say.
"I have the feeling I should ask, and yet at the same time I just don't think I should," Oliver said, expression bordering on something like incredulity.
Opec giggled and, upon reaching the rope ladder leading up to the ship, flicked a little bell near its end. It took a moment for a glaringly white head to appear from far up on deck.
"Opec!" the head seemed to exude, "Didn't you just get off?"
"Yessuh!" Opec called up, breaking into his public accent, "I's locked out, suh!"
"Ah, alright. Climb on up!"
Opec began up the ladder, motioning for Isaiah and Oliver to follow.
"Who're they?!"
"Friends of duh Massah, suh. He called fuh 'dem."
"...alright. They can come too."
Irizu was staring at the ladder as each rung passed, bundled in Fuzzy Man's robes.
"Oooooooo~"
Isaiah and Oliver both hesitated, exchanging 'what the hell' looks. This was something neither had expected, of the kind of weirdness they only read about and wondered how it could possibly happen.
"So," Iz said.
"Uh," Oliver replied.
"Thitha," Uziri snapped.
"Well....why not," Isaiah said finally, climbing up after Opec.
"I can only wonder how far my suspension of disbelief is going to go," Oliver said tartly as he started to climb up. Isaiah stepped down a rung and gave him a kick to the head.
"Quit bitching. This is strange and unusual and beats the hell out of watching television until two in the morning."
"....you stepped in gum, and now there's gum on my head."
"Yup."
Opec heard the comment, looked down, and cringed before continuing up. He was surrounded by a group of happily gibbering passengers upon reaching the top and was forced to bow politely and go to help Isaiah and Oliver up onto deck.
The wooden structure creaked in all of its hovering windy weirdness.
Despite the now constant stream of muttered insults and bickering, Oliver and Isaiah stuck close together and looked around uncertainly. Maybe this hadn't been a good idea. But then again...well, whatever was going to happen was going to happen, no use wondering about it until then.
"So what happens?" Oliver said finally in an undertone as he picked the bit of gum out of his hair. "We hoist the jolly roger and go out to sea to plunder and pillage?"
Isaiah's reply was a second kick aimed at Oliver's shins.
"Stop being such a rotten b*****d for once!"
"Make me."
Opec gave Oliver a look of "if you don't shut up, they're going to kill you". Not that he needed to. The other passengers were doing that already.
"Is that...all?" one of the nearly identical bleached-white men asked.
Opec nodded.
An odd orb of what looked like a stereotypical sci-fi portal texture surrounded the ship.
Opec casually went to sit down on a crate with Irizu while first the land passed them by, then the atmosphere, and then white-yellow streaks that must have been stars.
He did this every day of his life.
Oliver looked around, unimpressed, but for the sake of sparing himself another injury to be sustained from the increasingly irritated-looking Isaiah, kept his mouth shut.
Isaiah, by turn anxious and dumbstruck, simply watched at the changing scenery, unable to fully comprehend what was going on.
"Wha..."
It was less then two minutes later when the ship "docked". It had, in fact, simply stopped floating at the edge of a thousands-of-feet-high rock that just so happened to have a flat top.
This was Opec's homeland.
"Do you believe in aliens?" he asked Oliver and Isaiah rather quietly as he passed them to head for the land.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 12:48 pm
Locked Out - Part 2
"Jee-sus...."
"What was that?"
Oliver heard the question first, and stood stock still for a moment trying to reason it out. Isaiah's face took on an expression both confused and surprised, and tried to think of a decent answer.
"....pardon?" he said finally.
Opec winked and then pointed backward in the direction they had come. There was a large blue-and-green planet hovering some distance off.
"That's Gaia," he smiled, and then turned to begin his short trek to Master's house.
Irizu was just short of abysmally bored.
"Eetha?" she asked quietly.
The world they had come to did not look all that inviting. Aside from the fact that walking too far would send you hurtling to your doom on the stones below, the town itself was dark and dry. There was no water content on the planet, and so the sparse plants lying between the small houses and shops were oddly-shaped and rather creepy. There was not a lamp or lightbulb in sight, only the occasional candle-lit window holding the starkly contrastic writhing of shadows.
You could see one border from the other (or nearly), and it seemed for all the world like a third world country's thriving metropolis.
And, in a way, it was.
Oliver's eyes widened to a point where it looked painful. Isaiah made a small 'oh' sound, leaning against Oliver for support.
"We're..." Isaiah began.
"....not on the planet," Oliver supplied.
The duo looked at each other, unsure how to react. What kind of reaction could they even have?
"Dude! Vampires in space!"
Oliver gave a bark of laughter before he could contain himself. The pair walked side-by-side in an unusual display of normal relationship, looking around the barren-looking surroundings and pointing back to the planet from time to time.
Uziri, who'd begun dozing soon after they'd gone onto the ship, yawned and glanced around for Sister-thing.
"Bnah," she called back.
Opec giggled as an oddly chill wind blew past.
"It's like some horrible, horrible horror movie," he commented, still smiling, although he'd never seen one and only heard about them.
Irizu had somehow wriggled her way up Fuzzy Man's chest and wrapped her arms awkwardly around his neck. She now waved happily to Sister-thing.
"Muh-WAAH."
Opec stopped walking before a hulking structure, an enormous mansion made of something that looked like marble. Every window was unlit, and it looked essentially abandoned.
He paused, thinking hard.
"Definitely B-grade, at least," Oliver agreed, nodding slightly. "So...are we...on the moon or something?"
"Looks like," Iz said as he tripped and fell into Oliver, who promptly shoved him off again.
"Watch where you're going."
"Sorry...busy looking at the giant planet."
"...an adequate excuse."
Leaving Isaiah to his planet-gawking, Oliver noticed the mansion and gave it an uninterested look, arms crossing.
"Who's house?"
"Bishshah yaaaaab," Uziri burbled, wriggling and writhing and trying to reach Sister-thing again.
"Master's," Opec said suddenly, although he turned to face his companions and a smile broke out on his lips.
"We'll have to be very quiet. If they find you here, I'm liable to get beaten. C'mon."
He simply pushed the heavy wooden door open with his back and held it there for the other two to enter.
"Thhhhhhhh," Irizu assured them, placing a finger to her lips. Fuzzy Man always told her she had to be quiet when she came here.
And she usually got ice cream later too.
At the word 'beaten' a curious thing happened to both vampires' expressions - Isaiah's tightened and Oliver's turned momentarily, though notably, displeased. The moment passed and the pair shrugged it off, trying to regain some semblance of good behavior.
"We won't make a sound," Iz said, giving Oliver a pointed look. Oliver bristled slightly, but gave an affirming nod with a shrug.
Uziri nodded, sticking her fingers into her mouth and gnawing so to keep herself quiet. They tasted vaguely of the applesauce she'd had for dinner - and later used as finger paints - so had no problem keeping silent.
The mansion was vast, the ceilings tall. Opec led the group down various hallways, even his leather sandals echoing throughout the halls. When he reached the slaves' quarters, he gave Oliver and Isaiah a quick glance.
Oh well. They were big boys. They could take care of themselves.
As the group approached one door, though, it slowly creaked open. An unnatural light shone through and began to creep into the hallway.
Damn.
"Careful," was all Opec whispered before once again beginning the careful trek through the hall.
Where Isaiah was absurdly impressed, Oliver was indifferent, and both followed Opec through the place careful not to touch anything or make a sound. It was like a big museum to them, really. They exchanged glances yet again at the sudden light, but kept silent.
The peace didn't last for long. Opec gave a strangled gasp as a form hurtled from the room, oddly translucent and billowy, and grabbed the Vampires by the inward shoulders. The Viishani whirled to watch the form shriek, ethereal blood pouring from its mouth and eyes.
The entire mishap took only a few seconds.
Irizu's head was buried deeply in Fuzzy's Man's chest. She didn't liek See-Through Man, and she was pretty sure he didn't like her either.
Isaiah gave a badly-muffled cry and whirled around, hissing. Oliver, who'd been badly startled despite himself, growled and struck out on instinct before spinning away, trying to keep his balance.
Uziri was simply watching speculatively, eyes wide and staring. It wasn't that scary, she decided with a huff.
Another form appeared in the now-darkened doorway, but this one was entirely solid. Another slave appeared, a Viishani with one violet eye and an odd birthmark on his neck. He held his white robe close to him.
"That Opec?"
"Yuh, Frea. Opec."
"Who's them?"
"Friends uh Massah."
"Opec lying. Tiss not 'tack friends uh Massah."
"Biz-nih partnuh," Opec tried to explain, "New."
"Opec lying."
Opec simply stood there for a moment, staring.
"Frea not tell Massuh 'til mornin?"
"For Opec," the Viishani heaved a sigh and disappeared back into his room, closing the door behind him.
Opec looked troubled for a moment, and then shrugged, continuing down the hall.
"You'll have to pardon them," he whispered back over his shoulder, "Both of them. They're very old-fashioned. You're not supposed to be here."
Irizu unclamped her hands from over her ears and paused a moment. Good. See-Through Man was gone.
"Buh?"
"Shhhhh."
"Thhhhhhh..."
Oliver gave no reply outside a low rattling growl, irritated to have been startled so easily. Isaiah noted the man's bruised pride and grinned with slight maliciousness.
"Maybe this wasn't a good idea," he whispered back to Opec. "Me and Oliver can wait outside, we don't want to get you in trouble..."
"Thhhhh," Uziri parroted, just to do something.
"Wait outside and get pummeled," Opec smiled to Isaiah and placed a hand to the side of his face, "but no matter. We're here." He opened the nearest door to reveal a very paradoxical room. It was a wide ballroom with checkboard floor tile and the occasional smattering of antique furniture. A doorway to the left led to the kitchen and dining room, and a door to the right to a bathroom. Two staircases went up to a hallway and three door, what one could assume was bedrooms and possibly a bathroom.
The entire thing was lit with candles.
"Mah!" Irizu exclaimed happily.
Opec glowered at the nearby coffee table.
"THERE it is."
He picked a key up from it, considered what to do with it, and put it back down.
"Well. Welcome," he grinned.
Isaiah gave a whistle, impressed, then whistled again to see if it would echo.
"Nice place," he said. Oliver, fascinated with the floor pattern, gave Opec a careless nod.
"Beats the hell out of Isaiah's house."
"Hey, at least I have one."
Uziri was thrilled with the new surroundings. It was big, it was pretty, and though there seemed to be an unfortunate lack of mice it was quite a pleasant place.
Opec placed Irizu on the ground and the infant crawled awkwardly across the floor to sit on a round persian rug by the fireplace.
"EEEEEETHAAAAA!"
"If you remember correctly," Opec said, touching the tip of Isaiah's nose, "You agreed to move in here." He then looked deeply concerned.
"Unless it's not nice enough."
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," Iz said, so jolted that he'd forgotten he didn't even blush at Opec's casual touch. He looked around the place again and his expression brightened. "I'd really like that..."
Oliver, noting Irizu's noise, took Uziri from Isaiah and put her next to the other child.
"Shh," he said.
"Thh!"
"Good!" Opec grinned and clapped his hands together, then closing the door soundly.
"Now, Oliver...you asked me if I was busy?" His grin changed to a small smile.
Irizu giggled and butt-scooted a little closer to Sister-thing, another toothless grin cracking her face in half.
"Bwoooooooooooooo~"
Isaiah, now in too much of a good mood to try and injure Oliver into recanting his words, sat down on an old and expensive-looking chair and stretched out, looking up to the ceiling.
Uziri picked at the material of the carpet, burbling, then flopped down and rolled on it.
"Bshaaaa!"
Oliver grinned slightly.
"I believe I did. So, now that we've got everything all sorted out what with being locked out and all..."
Irizu giggled and joined in the rolling, squealing happily. It was a soft rug. She hadn't really noticed before.
"Yes, I think I know what you're getting at," Opec grinned, "but it all comes down to one thing. How much money yah got?" Regardless of the fact that the answer was probably going to be 'none', Opec approached Oliver and laced his arms around his neck.
Oliver shrugged slightly, twirling a thatch of Opec's hair between his fingers.
"Ah, details," he said, maintaining the grin though his eyes flicked over to Isaiah, who was determinedly ignoring both of them. It was a mean game when one got down to it, but baiting Isaiah was still something Oliver loved to do.
Half-rolling, half-crawling along the rug, Uziri started a caterwauling song, most likely some mutation of a lullaby Isaiah had alread butchered beyond recognition.
"Faa laaaasna baaaa!"
Opec laughed.
"Yes, details! I have to earn a living you know, and if you don't have the cash, you don't get the action!" He giggled and, contrary to his words, ran his cheek against Oliver's.
Irizu stopped moving suddenly, eyes wide and mouth hanging open.
"PEE-EE EETHA!" she yelled maybe a bit too excitedly. What beautiful music!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 12:49 pm
Locked Out - Part 3
"Cruel," Oliver scolded mildly, grin fading into a cool half-smile.
Isaiah made a dissenting noise that was choked back, and determinedly kept his gaze glued to the ceiling.
"Ennnnthaaa nii, taaaay maw haaaan, b'dee offa nebah laaawhn!"
"Isaiah...what is she singing," Oliver said, momentarily distracted.
Iz looked down at the screeching infants.
"Lullaby."
"Uh...huh. Yeah."
Irizu giggled and clapped, trying to keep beat with Sister-thing's singing and failing miserably.
"Nonono," Opec said, "THIS is cruel." He let go of Oliver and walked off with a quick flick of his hair...
...and immediately sat atop Isaiah, straddling his waist.
"You have money, though...dontcha?" His smile was anything but benevolent.
"Hmm? Oh...heh."
Iz had only enough time to register someone looming over him and a sudden weight on his lap before he found himself face to face with Opec. At that moment, Isaiah's brain snapped cleanly in two.
"AAGK!"
Oliver started laughing again.
"Smooth."
Having forgotten the rest of the words, Uziri contented herself to blow a spit bubble or two and start rolling on the carpet again.
Opec giggled, holding a hand over is mouth to stifle it. He had that funny feeling in his chest again, the one he couldn't explain, and he felt heat rise to his face.
"Am I really that frightening?" he asked after a while, still grinning.
Irizu, looking slightly put-out, barked. That's right, barked...just like she heard Fuzzy Man do once or twice.
"AURT."
Blushing a vivid shade of red, Isaiah snapped his head to the left and squeezed his eyes shut, unable to get a proper response out.
"Don't....don't sneak up on me- you- he- why're you sitting - did he put you up to this-" was all he could manage.
Uziri sat up straight, eyes wide. What an interesting noise! She poked Sister-thing, wanting to hear it again.
"Bvah! Bvah!" she demanded.
Opec's smile turned innocent and his face tilted downward for a moment.
"No, he didn't put me up to anything. I'm sorry," he apologize, but didn't move away. Instead, he rested his head on Isaiah's shoulder, looking up to him.
Irizu giggled at the poke, not understanding for the first moment or two, and then...
"AUUUURT!"
Opec's smile turned innocent and his face tilted downward for a moment.
"No, he didn't put me up to anything. I'm sorry," he apologized, but didn't move away. Instead, he rested his head on Isaiah's shoulder, looking up to him.
Irizu giggled at the poke, not understanding for the first moment or two, and then...
"AUUUURT!"
Isaiah's eyes opened slightly, and he forced himself to look over at Opec, though he instantly looked away again.
"No big deal," he said quickly. "Don't be sorry. Not a big deal."
Oliver, deeply and maliciously amused, watched the scene play out. Genius, pure genius...
Utterly delighted, Uziri loosed a shriek and clapped, unbalancing briefly and toppling backwards.
Irizu gasped and flopped atop Sister-thing, attempting to somehow cushion her fall. It clearly hadn't worked.
"Bwaah?!"
Opec sighed. He thought he knew what was goin on. So Iz thought Oliver had put him up to it, right? And Oliver clearly thought he was fooling with Iz.
Ah well.
Although the last time he'd done something similar he'd been beaten until both eyes swelled shut, and he had no idea why he had the urge to do it in the first place, he craned his neck upward and lightly touched his lips to Isaiah's jawbone. He then returned to his previous position, eyes closed.
He was already in for it for the morning, so making it worse wasn't going to help or hurt much more.
Oliver raised a brow, expression losing its vicious amusement and turning thoughtful.
Isaiah looked at Opec full in the face, no longer painfully embarrassed, but slightly astonished.
Uziri, still giggling like a fool, tried to copy the sound.
"URT!"
Opec noticed he was being looked-at and opened his eyes, smiling to Isaiah and placing a hand on the side of his face. He said nothing.
He was pretty sure he didn't need to.
Irizu laughed and clapped, pushing herself back up.
"Eetha goo'!"
Realizing this is how deer caught in headlights must feel, Isaiah looked back and made an effort to ignore the burning in his face. Well, this was an unexpected turn of events...
Head thrown back in pride, Uziri accepted the praise graciously.
"Anno, anno," she said imperiously, coughing to clear her throat and garner more attention. "URT! URT!"
Oliver gave Uziri what could only be described as a Look, lips thinning.
"Shh."
"URRRT!"
"Cripes. Shut it, larva."
"Fssssshhhhhhhh," Irizu said, pressing a finger to her lips again. She wasn't sure what was going on, but it seemed serious. It made sense to have to be quiet. Her aura wriggled curiously.
"Eetha wan' go wee-zoo woom?"
Opec simply blinked.
"Something wrong?" he asked, not quite sure why Isaiah's face was so pink or why he wasn't speaking. He'd never been stared at like this before.
Giving Oliver as scathing a look as she could manage (which really wasn't much), Uziri nodded at Irizu's question.
"Lethgo, Oyivver eth thupit," she said, nose wrinkling. "Awwa's Uthiwi kwy-yit oh Uthiwi sthuth up oh Uthiwi fnuck woff."
She wasn't sure what the last word meant, but by the way Isaiah had yelled and thrown things at Oliver's head when he'd said it made her curious.
Isaiah shook his head, trying to remind himself it was rude to stare, though he couldn't help it.
"No. Nothing," he said, looking down.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 12:50 pm
Locked Out - Part 4
Irizu began to carefully slimb the stairs. She learned from a rather nasty near-tumble that one had to pay attention to the stairs and strictly the stairs.
"Fnuck?" she asked, "Wass fnuck?"
Opec's brow furrowed and he brushed a bit of Isaiah's hair out of his eyes. He was thinking damn hard, and it was a rather obvious upon his face. He inhaled, opened his mouth to say something, but closed it abruptly.
He weighed the consequences of what he'd been about to say, and said it anyway.
"I love you."
"Dawnno," Uziri said, following Irizu. She'd become proficient crawling through the obstacle course that was Isaiah's house, but stairs were something new. It took a bit of effort.
"Oyivver thay, 'Uthiri fnuk woff', an' Ithy thay 'Oyivver, I's kee you', an' then Ithy hih' Oyivver wi' a pot," she added solemnly. "An' Oyivver thay 'fnuck' ag'in an' chase Ithy."
Isaiah waited and watched, curious over Opec's expression and wondering what was making him look, what, worried? Angry? No, that wasn't it. Hmm...
He snapped back to attention as Opec spoke, and as he spoke Isaiah felt the blood drain out of his face, leaving him looking rather gray.
"You....what..."
Had he just heard that right?
No.
Impossible.
Irizu nodded solemnly and continued up the stairs, then beating on the door in the middle.
"Fnuck muh' nah be uh goo' wor'," she stated matter-of-factly, glaring at the doorknob. She continued beating the door with her tiny palms.
Opec nodded.
"Love you," Opec repeated, not understanding Isaiah's reaction. His eyes flickered back and forth across the Vampire's face.
He looked pale...-er than usual.
The confused Viishani looked to Oliver questioningly. Had he done something wrong?
Uziri sat and watched the door abuse, chewing on her fingers.
"Nah a goo' wor'?" she said. "Oyivver ne'er thay goo' wor's. Alwahs thayin' sfuff tha' geth Ithy an'gy. Ithy shoul'n li' Oyivver. Uthiri nah li' Oyivver."
Isaiah couldn't help but start staring again. Was he lying? Was this some nasty joke between Opec and Oliver? How he could say love, when they'd only met up together a handful of times?
"You...but....you...why?" he said finally, looking shell-shocked and painfully repressing a surge of disbelieving, ecstatic shock.
"Weezu li' Owivuh," Irizu said simply. The man, although a bit scary, had never done anything to wrong her. Not yet, anyway.
There was a snick and the door opened.
"Dewe."
The room behind the door was small compared to the rest, probably having been a closet or bathroom at some time, but contained a crib, changing table, and toychest and was decorated purple and black.
"Weezo woom."
Opec turned back to Isaiah.
"I don't know," he shrugged, looking rather thoughtful again, "but it seems right. And feel." He grabbed one of Isaiah's hands and pressed it to his chest.
"It doesn't usually go that fast."
"Weezu on'y wun li' Oyivver," Uziri said plainly, nodding. She looked around the room in delight, cooing over the toy chest. "Whussat?"
Hand splayed over Opec's chest, Isaiah felt a heartbeat going at a pretty good rate under his touch. It didn't make sense at all, and what was more it made him happy, and so Isaiah was immediately saddled with suspicion that he just as immediately forced away. He glanced up at Opec, completely unsure what to say.
Oliver, who'd been unusually unobtrusive, stood in the flicker shadows, idly passing his hand through a candleflame. It had burned when he didn't do it fast enough, but when he'd finally recalled the trick of it his hand passed through the little fire painlessly. He'd have to remember to teach it to Uziri one day, he thought to himself, just to give Isaiah a good scare.
"Dah Weezo toy-shethst," Irizu smiled proudly, "Eetha wan thee? Weezo hab bid baw." The infant crawled for her toychest, rummaging through until she found the proper boy.
"Wook."
She rolled the ball, easily one-and-a-half times her size, to her sister. It was shiny. Very, very shiny.
Opec's ears folded back.
"You still don't believe me," he said sadly.
"Ooooooh," Uziri said, giving the ball her usual inspection of pokes and prods before rolling it back to Irizu. "S'ineeee!"
Isaiah swallowed with difficulty, hand still on Opec's chest. His expression was so torn it was nearly pitiful.
"I...I don't know," he said, bewildered. "I...I liked you the moment we met, I just didn't think you would ever bother with me...I mean, you always seem to like Oliver more, and...and I'm me! No one likes me, ever."
Oliver heard his name, and half-glanced over his shoulder. Poor kid. Utterly useless when it came to practical life - no matter what, he could never handle it well.
Irizu giggled and rolled it back.
"Fuddy Mah say Weezoo don' pop baw o' spaw-kwees go ebee-wew."
Opec smiled.
"You see, that's the thing," he tried to explain, "This happens when I see you." He patted Isaiah's hand.
"I feel Oliver up here." He tapped his temple. Yes, he loved Oliver too, but it wasn't in the same way. He could be certain of that now.
"And I like you."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 12:51 pm
Locked Out - Part 5
"Weezo gaw nyth s'inee," Uziri said, rolling it again. "Uthiri gaw a b'anket an a t'ingy Ithy caw OhgawdSeedawntoushtha'. I's fuffy an' ih' skeeks."
Isaiah listened intently, expression fighting between uncertainty and happiness. The latter was winning out bit by bit.
"I like you too," he said after hesitating, voice small.
"Weezo wan fuffy skeek!" Irizu called out, again excessively loudly, "Eetha shawe fuffy-skeek uff Weezoo shawe thiny?"
Frankly, she was curious to see this fluffy, squeaking thing.
Opec's smile spread and he once more closed his eyes, resting against Isaiah. One arm went up to wrap around his chest and squeeze. The other travelled mysteriously downward, stopping only when Opec's thumb hooked onto a rogue belt loop.
It was an innocent gesture, as far as he was concerned.
Uziri nodded hard, looking delighted once again.
"Uthiwi fyn' Weezo a fuffy," she said importantly. "Uthiwi's fuffy haw lossa fren's ah' Ithy-house. Zey in tha' walls, Uthiwi kin' hear 'em ah' nigh'."
It took all of his willpower not to jump at the sudden unexpected movement, but Isaiah did it. He was being hugged, dammit, and he didn't want to move. And seeing as he was completely broke, he doubted (somewhat gratefully) it wouldn't go further.
Oliver, still watching, for the sake of some foreign sliver of politeness, didn't snort with derision.
Irizu gasped.
"Yah!" she cheered, "Weezo wuv eetha." The ball rolled past her and got itself stuck beneath her crib. The freckled girl watched it for a moment.
"Oop..."
Opec sighed, and then grimaced.
"I guess you should probably ge--" he began, sitting up straighter and opening his eyes, "Yanno what? Wanna just stay here tonight? I mean, if you get hungry or something, I'm here."
Uziri burbled, looking pleased.
"Uthiwi luff thitha," she said, nodding. She frowned as she followed the ball's progress and sudden stop. "Awww.....ooh. Ooh ooh!"
With her usual half-crawl, half-roll, Uziri crept up to the crib as though she was a cat hunting a bird, the tendrils of her shadow-aura waving and snapping behind her.
"Uthiwi ge' ih..."
Wedging herself under the crib but unable to go very far, Uziri directed a tendril or two towards the ball, straining as she felt as though she was pulling muscles that didn't even exist.
"Ah'mos...ah'mos..." she sputtered as the tip of a tendril brushed the side of the ball. If only she could get a grip...she was so close! Darn it!
Isaiah instantly brightened.
"Sure!" he said, exceedingly eager. He glanced over to Oliver, who'd quickly diverted his attention back to the candle. "D'you wanna?"
Oliver gave a shrug.
"Hey. Whatever."
Irizu dragged her back legs as she moved to watch Sister-thing. The purple glowies could do that?! She rolled onto her side and pressed her back against the bottom of the crib. She closed her eyes, focusing on moving her theoretical tendril-muscles.
She momentarily felt nothing and then...AHA! Round thing.
"Weezoo nah ge' ih," she sighed, and then added as an afterthought: "Fnuck."
"Okay!" Opec grinned and pulled back from Isaiah. He stood and took a good look around, chewing on his lower lip.
"Yeah, sure, we've got room." He smiled. At Oliver's response, however, he placed his hands on his hips.
"Don't 'whatever' me. You never know when you're ruining your chances to get lucky."
Uziri sighed. She'd really liked that ball, too...
"Fnuck," she said, nodding in agreement.
Oliver turned, unconsciously rubbing the burns on his hand as they healed and slowly faded. It was a good trick, when one remembered how to do it properly - he winced as the burn on his palm itched and stung as it healed, and he sauntered back over nonchalantly.
"I apologize," he said, grinning slightly and inclining his head. "Thanks for the invitation."
It was Isaiah's turn to give a derisive snort, and he did so with ease.
"Oh-tay," Irizu nodded, "Weezoo know how det baw."
"That's more like it," Opec giggled and winked. He wasn't all that certain that Oliver was going to get lucky, but then again, when could you ever be certain?
"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWP!"
Opec arched a brow. There was absolutely noting in this house that a child could get harmed in...
"One moment please," he said before going up the stairs and peering at the two infants on the floor. He laughed again.
"What are you two doing?"
Irizu giggled.
As Opec went upstairs, Oliver gave Isaiah a long look before casually whacking him upside the head.
"OW! Hey, what was that for?" Iz said, flailing back. Oliver grinned, an expression so devoid of malice or innuendo or ice-cold nastiness that it rather scared Isaiah.
"You," Oliver said, "are lucky. And an idiot."
"And a little scared of you, what on earth's wrong?"
Oliver just snorted, the grin gone as fast as it had come and replaced with the usual apathetic look.
"Nothin'."
Uziri looked up at Opec and pointed towards the crib.
"Wan' si'nee!" she demanded.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 12:52 pm
Locked Out - Part 6
Irizu gave Sister-thing a scolding look.
"Peez!"
Opec ruffled his daughter's hair and then bent down, peering under the crib. Damnable thing had gone pretty far back...
He sat down between the infants, his back to the crib, and then bent in half to peer beneath it.
He whapped the ball with his tail once...twice...three times...and then reached under and easily grabbed it. He handed the toy to Uziri.
"Here," he smiled, and then stood again to rejoin Isaiah and Oliver in the lobby.
"Nothin'?" he asked, still smiling, "What's nothin'?"
Ignoring the look Irizu had given her, Uziri greedily clung to the ball, gurgling and chattering to herself with pleasure at the toy's retrieval. It took a moment for her to remember this was Sister-thing's ball, and rolled it back to her.
Oliver glanced up, giving a half-shrug.
"Nothin'," he said with aggravating ease. Isaiah stepped on his foot.
"Don't mind him. He likes to pretend he's mysterious and deep," Iz said, ducking as Oliver's fit swung out and grazed the side of his head.
Irizu blinked, not saying anything but desperately wanting her ball back. When it rolled in her direction, she smiled, and then pushed it back.
Opec smiled and rolled his eyes.
"He doesn't do very well," he said, "All I've gotten so far is perverted and tall." He sauntered over to the Vampires and placed his hands on his hips.
"I have no idea how I'm going to hide you two."
Uziri picked the ball up with difficulty, and with an unsteady grip threw it to the floor. The thing bounced weakly before slowly rolling back to Irizu, but Uziri gave a triumphant screech at her ability to show off.
Oliver feigned a wounded expression that immediately turned wry at the mention of 'hiding'.
"I doubt I'll be around so often I'll have an actual spot 'round here," he said. "A couch'll do fine."
He gave Isaiah a once-over.
"I bet you could hide 'im in a closet. He's a stick-boy."
Irizu laughed and clapped, picking up the ball and attempting to copy Sister-thing's trick. The ball bounced patheticaly back.
"Naooo..." she cooed sadly.
"I figured you'd say that," Opec smiled, "and Isaiah...you can take my room." He nodded, giving Iz a once-over.
"Without me in it, I'm afraid. I'll take the gallery. If Master sees me with either of you...yeah. Not a good thing. Oliver on the couch is a...slight offense." He grinned and suddenly clung to Isaiah.
Uziri clucked her tongue, poking the ball and scowling at it. How dare it make Sister-thing unhappy by not bouncing! The nerve of it!
"BAH BAW," she said, bringing a tiny fist down on top of the toy. Her hand rebounded and nearly hit her face, and Uziri clucked again. So, it wanted to fight, did it? Uziri struck the ball again, with enough force to make the rebound knock her over again.
Alright. Maybe it had won this round, but the war was far from over.
Forcing himself to keep still and not emit any kind of yelping noises as Opec hugged him again, Isaiah regained something like composure and nodded.
"Okay," he said. Oliver gave a noncommittal nod that meant nothing at all, looking bored already.
Irizu gasped, shrieked, and began to kangaroo-kick the ball. It bounced wildly for a moment before flying up and bopping her on the head.
She was stunned for a moment.
...and then she giggled quietly.
Opec let go of Isaiah, recognizing how uncomfortable he felt. He brushed himself off and arched an eyebrow.
"T'night?" he asked Oliver ambiguously.
Not bothering to sit up again, Uziri watched the ball roll innocently past her head and blew a defiant spit bubble. Accursed thing!
"Uthiwi geh' you whe' you naw loothin'," she said warningly to the toy. "Uthiwi gon' gethoo."
The boredom wearing off a bit, Oliver gave a casual nod.
"Sure," he said with equal ambiguity, shrugging again as he spared Isaiah a glance. The kid was too busy hiding his face behind his hair to disguise a blush a notice anything, as usual.
Irizu giggled harder.
"Hmph," Opec voiced and crossed his arms, "Fine, then. I was gonna make you pay, and I just offered to not...and all I get is a 'sure'?" His tail swished slowly back and forth. He was, of course, only feigning offense.
A 'sure' was six thousand times better than what he usually recieved.
"You're too vague. I don't have the brain power to interpret oblique hinting," Oliver said offhandedly, looking pleased nonetheless.
Uziri, glowering at her defeat from the ball, burbled.
"Hmph," Opec voiced, but smiled. He then perched atop the chair Isaiah had been sitting in, pulling his feel together in front of him in a horrible mockery of Indian-style.
"What do we do until then?"
He wasn't used to company.
Irizu approached Sister-thing and patted her comfortingly. The ball was at fault here, clearly. There was nothing to be ashamed of!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 12:53 pm
Locked Out - Part 7
Oliver and Isaiah shrugged in unison. Socialization was never their strong point.
"....small talk?" Isaiah offered eventually. Oliver grimaced.
"But that requires caring about conversation."
Isaiah elbowed him obstinately.
"Stop being a jackass. If you try to hard people'll think you're compensating for something."
Disgraced by her loss, Uziri gave an overdramatic burble. The shame!
Opec's smile grew to a wicked grin.
"I could think of something."
Irizu sniffled and patted Sister-thing some more. Patting made things better, didn't it?
Oliver smiled, and Isaiah looked quickly down at the floor.
"Do tell?" Oliver said, resting an arm on Isaiah's ducked head.
Uziri looked up, and with a sudden upswing of mood tackled Irizu.
"Bvah!" she said, her depression effectively evaporated.
" 'fraid it shouldn't be spoken 'bout 'round Iz," Opec said, and then dropped his voice to a whisper, "He might get jealous." He was being completely honest, too.
There was no way in Hell he was going to include poor virginal Isaiah.
Irizu simply lay, shell-shocked, and then gave a racous giggle. She smooshed her hands against the side of Uziri's face, pushing her cheeks together so she looked like a fishy.
Isaiah gave no indication of hearing anything, too bust looking down at the floor and trying to busy himself counting floor tiles. Oliver gave him a look half-pitying, nodding in agreement with Opec.
"Mm, yeah. Poor kid. His brain'd likely to leak out his ears," he said unconcernedly.
"Blff!"
Uziri giggled wildly in response, unable to get loose but not trying to hard anyway.
Opec nodded.
"Someone should watch the twins anyway," he said, for the first time voicing their obvious relation, "Up for it, Iz?"
Irizu giggled again and removed her hands from Uziri's face, now smooshing her own lips to be a fishy. She attempted to giggle, but it came out full of vibrating air.
She shrieked and giggled.
"Absolutely," Isaiah said, jumping to attention and fleeing up the stairs before either Oliver could mock him for the new blush or Opec could question it. "I'll watch the kids."
Bursting into Irizu's room and closing the door sharply behind him, Isaiah gave a relieved sigh and slid down the wall to sit on the floor, yanking his hood over his head and obscuring his face.
Uziri laughed and snorted, though at Isaiah's sudden appearance her mood turned instantly serious. She crawled over to the teen and tugged at his arm, then reached up and tugged at his hood.
"Iss?" she said.
Opec's brow furrowed. He touched his lips to his own palm and then blew on it, effectively blowing Isaiah a kiss through the door.
Not that Iz'd ever know he'd done it.
The Viishani then turned to Oliver, one ear twitching.
"Well..."
Irizu also grew suddenly concerned and crawl-wobbled over to Isaiah, crawling onto his leg and yanking at his hood.
"Ee-day-buh?"
Watching Isaiah flee and resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Oliver allowed the ghost of a smile to appear at Opec's response to it.
"He'll grow out of the running away thing," he said. "Trip him once or twice, that'll help him get out of the habit."
The tiny smile vanished, replaced by the as-always slightly out of place grin.
"So."
"Ithy. Ithy! Ithyyyy!" Uziri said, tugging harder at Isaiah's hood. Why wasn't he paying attention, darn it!
Isaiah looked up at last, drawing the hood back a bit and beeping Uziri's nose.
"Worried about me, huh?" he said, glancing over at Irizu. "Don't worry. Just proving how irrevocably juvenile I am, nothing to worry over."
He tousled Uziri's hair, making her burble in response.
"We'll just...be staying up here for a bit."
(some time later)
Opec smiled, still pinned beneath Oliver.
"I like you too," he said carefully, positive that Isaiah, who he'd just recently professed his love to, wouldn't like him saying that.
Upstairs, Irizu lifted her arms to the hiding Isaiah, one hand clutching her spherical giraffe and the other flexing in and out of a fist.
She wanted to be carried, not walk herself. Going down stairs was hard.
"Beh."
"Alright, alright, I gotcha..."
With an infant under each arm - he wasn't clear how to hold a baby properly, but at least he wouldn't drop them - Isaiah nudged the door open with his foot.
"You better be decent," he called, directly addressing Oliver.
Oliver, decidedly uncaring about Isaiah's feelings but sure the infants could do without emotional or mental scarring, murmured a bored-sounding 'yeah yeah' before getting up.
"Little brat," he said, smirking slightly.
Opec slid to the floor easily, examined his physical condition, shrugged, and began refolding his robe around himself. An odd blush remained, one he couldn't quite explain.
"We're decent!" he called up.
Irizu wriggled and kicked a little.
"FUDDY MAIH!"
"Speak for yourself," Oliver yawned, dragging his shirt back over his head and irreperably mussing his hair. Isaiah ventured down the stairs with children in hand, looking as though any sudden movement would send him running back up the stairs to hide.
Tired by this point and growing grumpy because of it, Uziri let a rope of drool slide out from between her lips, and sucked it back in with a loud, crude slurp.
"Fine," Opec giggled slightly, speaking quieter now, "I'm decent." He smiled and snatched Irizu from Isaiah's arm, twirling her around at an arm's length and hugging her gently.
Irizu laughed and reached for Fuzzy Man's ears.
Opec turned to Isaiah once more, his smile changing slightly.
"You okay? You look...anxious."
"Nn," Oliver said vaguely, at first indifferent but looking back to give a vague smile.
Uziri burbled and shifted, tugging at Isaiah's sleeve and successfullygrabbing hold of a drawstring, which she promptly put into her mouth.
"Grrgh."
Anxious? Who, Isaiah? Anxious?
Hmm. Right on the mark, really.
"I'm fine," Iz said, rather convincingly.
Opec yawned and stretched, thrusting Irizu into the air.
The infant burbled happily.
"You're lying," the Viishani replied after giving his head a clearing shake, "but that's okay. I forgive you."
Irizu yawned and flopped a bit.
"Nap time?"
She nodded.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 3:48 pm
Confessions
Opec had no set plans for the night. Work had ended hours before and he was simply wandering now, Irizu sleeping in a little sling beneath one arm. An ear twitched. His tail swayed.
He decided he was going to visit Isaiah.
Rounding a corner, though, he spotted a familiar shape across the street. Carefully, he snuck up.
Sitting on the sidewalk curb and counting out the bills he'd liberated from his last meal's wallet, Oliver picked his teeth with a toothpick and spat onto the sidewalk. He loathed the athletic types, they always tasted like steroids or ******** disgusting," he complained to no one, spitting again. Vile iron tang would stay for days...
Opec giggled slightly, but muffled the sound with his hand. Soon enough he was on his knees beside Oliver, hugging him tightly from one side.
"Hiiiii~" he cooed, feeling that now-familiar fluttering in his chest and cursing it for all it was worth.
Nearly swallowing the toothpick and muffling a sharply angry and surprised growl, Oliver bared his teeth and turned his head sharply enough to give himself a crick in his neck.
"Why you little-waitasecondit'syou."
His threat turning into something run together and trailing off into sheepish silence, Oliver graced Opec with a completely surprised gawking expression.
"Um. Hey Opec," he said, looking vaguely unnerved.
Opec reached up and dragged a hand down the side of Oliver's face.
"Hi," Opec repeated, smiling slightly, his cheeks a deep pinkish colour. He paused for a moment, considering his next move.
"Are you well-fed enough to talk?" His smile stretched out, wrinkling his cheeks.
Noting the blush but making no comment - he'd needled Isaiah enough about such things to get tired of the joke - Oliver nodded, then cleared his throat, cringing inwardly at the thick unpleasant iron taste.
"Yeah," he said offhandedly, stowing the stolen money in his pocket. "What're you doing here? I woulda thought you had work're something."
Opec shook his head.
"I'm usually finished around now," he said, wondering how to go about all this. He really wasn't all that skilled when it came to expressing emotions.
"I'm going to visit Isaiah...but I saw you here and figured I should tell you something." He reached up then and kissed Oliver quickly on the neck.
There. Now he'd done it to them both. He'd marked and claimed them, in his own mind. What they did now was up to them.
"I think love you too."
"Oh, ok-um."
Momentarily at a loss for words, Oliver took hold of Opec's shoulders and pushed him back a bit.
"Wait, what?" he said, looking speculative and letting Opec go.
Opec's eyes grew wide and worried. He hadn't been expecting any kind of physical reaction...especially not one with such ambiguous motives.
A slap in the face he could have taken.
"You heard me," he said quietly, head bowed slightly like a guilty puppy, "I love you too."
Realizing his grip had gone tight to the point where it might be painful, Oliver let Opec go and let his arms falls to his sides.
"I did hear you," he said. "I'm just thinking."
This was very unexpected, to say the least. Oliver being loved was about as probable as Isaiah being outgoing and well-spoken.
Oooh. Isaiah. What would he think of all this?
"Does Iz know?"
Opec's eyes widened even further.
"Ooooh, no," he said, voice grave and frightened, "I don't think...I don't know...please don't tell him. I'd like to tell him myself if he has to know." The Viishani hugged himself protectively.
Irizu's eyes opened for a moment but, seeing two familiar faces, soon closed as the infant resumed her thumb-sucking sleep.
"Even I'm not that mean," Oliver said thoughtfully. "Coming from me he'd take it as mortal insult. From you....there might be hope of a better reaction."
He chomped on his toothpick and made it splinter. Spitting out the bit of wood, he petted Opec's head reassuringly.
"It might not be so bad," he said.
Opec's ears folded back at the gesture. It seemed almost...patronizing?
"That's all well and good," he said after a moment, "but you haven't told me how you feel."
The splintered toothpick wasn't all that great of an indicator.
Oliver didn't notice the effect of the gesture. He'd done it half-attentively anyway; he was too distracted by his own thoughts to pay much attention to anything.
"I..."
What did he feel? This had been thrown at him so fast he was still trying to understand. Besides, this was him. He barely felt anything anymore. But poor Opec didn't know that...
"...I like you," he said finally. "More than you realize. I just...it's too early to know if I love you, Opec. Way too early."
He felt rather bad for saying it, but it was the truth.
Opec's smile re-spawned, growing slowly and steadily once more.
"That's all I had to hear," he nodded, keeping his head bowed a moment to long in what could quite possibly have been a display of submission. He stood then, cradling Irizu's sling carefully with one arm as he did so. He felt the baby wriggle in protest, and then go still again.
"I'll...I'll be seeing you, I guess." He waved and with that he was off, hips swinging and tail swaying in the general direction of Isaiah's apartment building.
"Okay," Oliver said. He watched Opec go, intent on counting the money again and going back to the motel room that was currently home - and found he couldn't. Opec had gone a good distance, and he got up and walked after. He needed to see how this ended...
Opec clearly didn't notice Oliver following him, and so simply continued on his way. Once reaching Isaiah's door, he peeked through a rather large hole in the wood.
Only then did he think to knock.
"Hello?"
"Bwaaaaaaaah..."
Uziri, playing on the floor with her mouse, heard the knock before Isaiah.
"Ithy."
"Nn?"
"Ithy dooooooowah."
"Dooowah? What?"
"DOWAH DOWAH DOWAH!"
"Dowah....uh...oh! Door!"
Isaiah slid off the couch and picked his way through the tiny living room, jumping over an overturned chair to get to the front door.
"C'mon in, if you can," he said, forcing the door open. "Can I he....oh....heya, Opec!"
Opec inched into the room, looking rather sullen.
Irizu opened her eyes again.
"Buaaah? Eetha...?"
"Isaiah...I need to tell you something," Opec sighed, "I don't think you're gonna like it."
The smile that had sprung up on Isaiah's face disappeared instantly.
Uh oh.
"Um...okay..." he said, hoisting himself up onto the decrepit kitchen island. "What's...what's wrong?"
Uziri's head snapped up and she pressed a finger to her lips, pointing at the mouse with the other hand.
"Skeeky," she said conspiratorially. "Uthiwi finin' skeeky fo' Weezoo."
Oliver, finally having caught up to Opec, waited out in the hall and out of sight as he heard Isaiah speak. This absolutely wasn't going to end well, he figured.
Opec gently placed the sling that had been holding Irizu on the ground.
Irizu smiled sleepily and crawled clumsily over to Sister-thing.
"Coot skeeky."
Opec turned back to Isaiah, and heaved a sigh.
"Let me start off by saying I didn't lie," he began, "It's said that Viishnu are only meant to love a certain person, and they know when they do. They feel it here." He pressed a hand to his chest.
"I wasn't lying. I do love you."
He paused.
"And someone else too."
Isaiah blinked once.
"So. You're saying...you love me," he began, voice slowly tightening. "But...also someone else. Because....what...wait. Opec, I....okay. Wait."
Sliding off the kitchen island and beginning a tight pace - there wasn't much room to breathe in Isaiah's house, let alone pace- Iz wrung his hands and mouthed Opec's words over and over. He looked up at Opec, expression growing slowly more and more unreadable.
"So...let me...understand...this... this is a 'I love you, but yeah, maybe you're lacking a bit so I have a fallback plan' type of thing, right?"
There was bewildered hurt on his face now as an idea dawned.
"You love him, don't you," he said finally, leaning against the counter again. He doubted he had to mention the name.
"Uthiwi call 'im Muffin," Uziri said seriously. "He cah fly."
Of course, Uziri had assisted the flight more than once with a good toss, but Irizu didn't need to know that.
Still hiding out in the hallway, Oliver listened and cringed slightly.
"Nonono," Opec said, waving his hands, "It's not a fallback plan. No fallbacks. Just...emotions. I figured I should tell you, because...I do l--"
He stopped.
"Him..." Opec parrted and dropped his head, voice barely audible, "Yes."
Irizu grinned and scooped the mouse up, staring at it.
"Ooooh," she cooed, "Muffin."
She paused.
"Muffin fwy?"
A long, withering sigh escaped Isaiah.
"Of course," he said, a bitter laugh in his voice. "Why'd I even ask."
Head dropping down, Isaiah leaned back and pushed the hair out of his face, looking up slowly ceiling-ward with an ugly expression.
"How'd I guess..." he said. A beat later he added, "Please leave."
Uziri nodded.
"Muffin fly," she said eagerly. "Noh far, buh he cah fly. Sometimes."
"Oooh s**t," Oliver said, leaning against the doorframe and in startling fierce internal debate on whether to go in or not. Most of his being was leaning towards 'turn and run'.
"No!" Opec yelped, sniffling. It was not so much a refusal as a 'please, god, no'. He hadn't been expecting to be told to leave. A punch to the face, maybe, but not a complete abandonment.
His face was suddenly wet with tears.
"Please don't make me go," he said, giving a convulsive sob and running to Isaiah, dropping to his knees and clinging to the vampire's leg, "Please don't."
Irizu blinked.
"How onwy sometime?"
Disgusted with himself for making Opec cry, but too angry and hurt and confused to try to apologize, Isaiah yanked himself out of Opec's grasp and made for the door.
"Fine. I'll leave," he said tonelessly. He was halfway out the door when an arm caught him in the chest. "UNGHK! Ahh...ow...who..."
Oliver leaned in the doorway, looking from Opec to Isaiah with a desperately neutral expression.
"Iz..."
Isaiah twitched.
"Hello," he said.
And his arm swung back, and Isaiah punched Oliver full-on in the face.
"G'avity," Uziri said simply. Iz often yelled something involving 'gravity', 'bone fractures' and 'infant suicide' whenever she tried to climb up something, so she supposed it must apply to the mouse as well. Every time she threw him he did come down eventually.
"Noooo..." Opec groaned, sobbing into his hands and only looking up when he heard Oliver's voice. Oh, s**t...
He gave a startled shriek and clapped his hands over his mouth when the punch was thrown.
On an impulse, Irizu tossed the mouse into the air. She watched it struggle to grip...nothing, and then caught it gently.
"...MUFFIN FWY!"
"Hnngh!"
It wasn't so much a cry of pain as of complete astonishment. Isaiah had never attempted to actually hurt him before...
"Isaiah," Oliver began again, ducking out of range as Iz swung again. "Iz, ******** you!" Isaiah snarled. "You take everything. Everything! What else can you possibly ******** want!"
Oliver froze, looking lost for words. Isaiah took advantage of the moment and struck Oliver in the jaw. There was an audible crack as one of Isaiah's fingers snapped from the force of impact, and he watched it heal with grotesque anger on his face.
"I hate you," he spat. Oliver's expression twinged, and he backed up a ******** OFF!"
Oliver, holding his jaw and staring at Isaiah, gave a regretful sigh and kicked Isaiah's legs out from under him. Isaiah fell hard, cracking his head against the chair laying on the floor. Oliver kicked him again, rolling him onto his back.
"Will you please just LISTEN-" he began, before being effectively silenced as Isaiah kicked upwards and caught him in the stomach.
Uziri sighed.
"Muffin b'oken," she offered. "Mebbe no fly no mo'."
At the sound of scuffling, screaming and cursing, she looked over to the gather adults in puzzlement. Jeez, they were noisy...
Opec shrieked again and tried to stand, stumbled, finally caught his footing and ran to the brawling pair.
"NO! PLEASE!"
Irizu looked to the adults. Oh well. As long as Fuzzy Man wasn't being hurt...
"Oh. Otay. Muffin bwo-ten. Weezoo still wyke Muffin."
Snarling like an animal and blazing hatred on his face, Isaiah made as though to charge full-on at Oliver and collided into Opec. He pushed himself away and feinted left, making Oliver duck to the right before being bowled into hard enough to send him sprawling.
"Isaiah, STOP! You ******** idiot, you're gonna -UNGHK- hurt ********, feels like you loosened a tooth...Iz, Isaiah....ISAIAH WAYLAND, QUIT IT!"
Iz stopped, but only because Oliver had grabbed him by the throat and was currently choking the life out of him. Iz hissed at him, and Oliver sighed again.
"Will you please just calm down for a second?"
"Nn...hhhh...nnnhhooo."
"Then I'm not gonna let you go."
Iz hissed again.
Rolling her eyes at the silliness of grown-ups, Uziri turned her attentions back to more important matters.
"Issa goo' Muffin," she said sagely.
Opec suddenly appeared behind Isaiah, a trio of white bone-claws to his throat. There were three gaping, dripping wounds running from below his wrist to where the claws extended from, displaying the sockets.
He sniffled, sobbed, and twitched slightly.
"Calm," he gasped, having to catch his breath before speaking again, "Down."
Irizu nodded.
"Gooh Muffin," she pet the terrified creature, "...eet muffins?"
Isaiah managed a small, strangled sound, anger doubling. What the ******** was Opec doing putting claws to his throat! Thoughts brooding on favoritism and pity-sympathy and a million other things that just raised his ire raced through his head.
Taking a series of deep breaths, he went slack in Oliver's grip, eyes fixed on the floor. Oliver let Isaiah go in relief, rubbing his still-sore jaw.
"Iz..."
Coughing, Isaiah didn't bother to look up.
"Get out. Both of you. Get out."
Uziri nodded.
"Uthiwi foun' Muffin inna box wih' doo-nuts an' muffin an a chih'en leg," she said. "Uthiwi can' call Muffin Chih'en Leg, so Uthiwi call Muffin...uh...Muffin."
In retrospect, maybe Chicken Leg would have been a neater name. Oh well. She reached out and petted the mouse, and it gave a irate squeak. There had better be cookie bits at the end of this, it seemed to say, ears flat to its head and whiskers twitching.
Opec retracted his claws and gave a convulsive sob.
"What will us going achieve?" he asked, "If you're going to blame anyone, blame me. If you're going to hate anyone, hate me. God forbid I fall in love with two people. It's not like I meant to. it's not like I wanted to." Having given up, Opec went to Irizu and pluched her from the ground.
Irizu shrieked bloody murder, dropping Muffin to the ground and subsequently finding herself smeared with red stuff and being taken away from Sister-thing.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Isaiah said nothing, expression torn between self-righteous bitterness and utter panic. Oliver waited, tense, unsure if he should wait for Iz to say something or if he'd have to do it.
"Well?" he said to Isaiah. "Aren't you gonna...aren't you going to say anything?"
Isaiah looked up at him in distaste.
"What good will it do?" he spat. "I just proved I'm as much of a miserable ******** as you are."
Oliver looked from Iz to Opec again, and got up. He doubled over briefly and clutched his side, wincing, then straightened.
"Opec, wait."
Uziri gave a furious shriek and threw herself at Opec, latching onto his tail.
"Rar!" she said, tugging at it and her face crumpling as she stared up at him.
Opec shrieked in pain at the tug on his tail, closing his eyes and setting his jaw against the pain and anger.
"What," he snapped, gagging spasmodically.
Irizu screamed in response to Sister-thing and Fuzzy Man and all of the confusion...and then started crying.
"I'm sorry," Oliver blurted.
Isaiah's jaw dropped.
"Did you just...how did you not just erupt into a pillar of fire?"
"I'm expecting it soon enough."
"Hhnf."
Oliver nudged him with his foot, gesturing irritably.
"What?"
"Get UP, you idiot."
"...fine."
Standing - and keeping a good amount of distance between himself and Oliver - Isaiah looked down at the floor, leaning against the doorframe.
"Are you going somewhere with this?" he asked Oliver bluntly.
"Momentarily, once the rib removes itself from my lung."
"Pansy."
Uziri, confused beyond reason now, burst into sympathetic tears.
Opec, knowing there was nothing he could do, simply dropped to the ground, continued crying, and held the two bawling infants close to him.
Momentarily roused from their bickering, Isaiah and Oliver slowly looked over to the sad scene before them.
"Oh..." Iz said.
"...s**t," Oliver offered.
Sighing, Isaiah tore at his hair in frustration and kicked Oliver in the shin.
"I'm so pissed at you I wish I could just spit acid blood at you and melt your face off," he wanted to say. Instead, Isaiah awkwardly gripped Oliver's shoulder in apology and turned his attention to Opec.
"I'm....I'm sorry I reacted that way," he said feebly. "I was just...he surprised me and I kind of...snapped. I didn't mean to get you so upset."
Opec simply buried his face in Irizu's hair and continued sobbing, now paling considerably due to the amount of blood leaking from his arm. He had no idea what to do or say. Hell, this was the first time he'd ever felt this thing they called 'love', and also the first time he'd ever seen Isaiah have a mental breakdown.
Ah...idea.
He placed the infants back on the ground and stood, brushing himself off regally.
Irizu sniffled and looked down at her arms where Opec's blood had smeared, finding the blood gone and instead a dark brown spot on her skin.
She shrieked and started crying again.
"You know," Opec began, voice oddly cold and deep, "There are rules to being a slave. Seeing people only signed off on by the master is one. That will get you beaten." He let this sink in for a moment, then lifted his wet eyes to the vampires, flickering between them for a moment.
"And, of course, you're not allowed to let your lips touch any part of any other body, aside from Master. That goes for both client, and slave."
Without saying anything more, he leaped toward Isaiah, tangled his fingers in the vampire's hair, and kissed him deeply. After quite some time, he pulled away.
"...because then a master is allowed to kill you."
Both of them listening intently, Oliver and Isaiah cringed at the word 'beaten' as they always did, exchanging looks. They hadn't realized how much trouble they were...
"Opec, I-" Iz started as Opec sprang at him, immediately searching for quick words of apology before he was presumably slashed to death, but couldn't get the words out fast enough before he found himself pinned.
Uziri, sniffling, looked up with a screech that suddenly turned into a distinct "Bleh". Kissing. Icky.
Pulling away from Opec in alarm, Isaiah clamped a hand to his mouth and stared. Oliver gaped.
"...kill you," he said finally when Iz said nothing. "Kill you."
Isaiah removed his hand from his mouth, eyes wide.
"I just...what the hell....why would you...kill you?" he said, bewildered. He glanced over at Oliver. "Why did you just..."
Oliver shoved Isaiah's arm hard.
"Will you just shut up and accept the fact he likes you?"
"Not helping, Oliver."
Irizu continued crying, watching as the odd marks on her skin slowly began to dwindle in size.
Opec simply smiled slowly, another tear falling from his eye.
"Kill me," he nodded and then took a step forward to Oliver, kissing him briefly on the lips.
"And now you'd both be equally responsible."
He sighed and dropped to his knees again. Would he tell Master? No, of course not...
...and lying could get you killed too.
Both Isaiah and Oliver said nothing for a very long time. Isaiah had pressed a hand to his mouth again, looking anxiety-stricken. Oliver was looking at the floor, where a mouse was obstinately staring back up.
Uziri belched.
"I'd rip his arms off if he tried to hit you," Iz said warily, hand falling away from his mouth as he looked up at Opec. "You're not gonna get hurt because of me."
Oliver nodded vaguely, glancing up at Opec as well.
"We'll keep you safe," he said, feeling like an idiot for such sap to be spilling out of his mouth.
Opec looked up at them and smiled.
"Thank you," he nodded, "and I'm sorry." He knew full well neither of them would be able to keep Master from him, but it was comforting to know that they would try. As for the apology...well, wasn't it obvious?
Irizu burbled and clung to Uziri's arm, only sniffling now.
He stood, found himself weak, and clung to Isaiah's shirt to keep himself up.
"...so tired..."
"Yeah..."
"No problem..."
Muttering until their voices intertwined and trailed off into awkward silence, Oliver and Iz exchanged looks again. This was so completely unlike their normal selves it was starting to get creepy. Isaiah jerked in surprise and clung to Opec as he seemed to stumble.
"Oh! Um, jeez...bloodloss?" he said, ushering Opec over to the couch. Oliver looked on, frowning, then glanced down at the children.
"Fnuck?"
"Yeah, I'd say that about covers it."
Opec took a deep breath and fell onto the couch, curling into a half fetal position. He'd only ever used his claws once before. He wasn't used to losing so much blood.
He then looked to the vampires and raised his bloodied hand.
"If you don't take it," he said slowly, breathing slowed, "It'll just be wasted on the floor."
"Fnuck," Irizu agreed, crawling over to Fuzzy Man and sitting beside the couch at his feet.
Iz tutted, running to go find bandages or something that at least resembled them. Oliver shook his head, looking around for something that might appear useful.
"I'm...not hungry," Iz said, coming back with bandaids and a dampened rag to wash the blood off. "Oliver?"
Looking distinctly uncomfortable at the thought of eating, Oliver shook his head again.
"I'm good."
Uziri sighed. Grown-ups were so stupid sometimes, it was amazing.
"Muffin," she called, looking around for the mouse. The little creature gave a spiteful squeak from his hiding place under a footstool and curled up under the crumpled newspaper currently shielding him from view. No attention to the baby thing, he decided, until cookies were made available.
Opec sighed and sat up slowly, looking extremely exhausted or stoned, and eyed the bandaids.
He laughed and took the rag.
"Muffin?" Irizu questioned, having completely forgotten her skin's flaring, "Skeeky? WHERE SKEEKY?!"
Opec simply held the cloth beneath his hand and hummed quietly to himself, slowing his own heartbeat and breathing by simply thinking about something else. Once the blood ceased its pulsing, what wasn't caught permanently in the threads climbed lethargically back into his claw sockets, riding the bone in little trails for a moment or two before hiding beneath.
He folded the rag carefully and yawned.
Oliver graced Iz with a half-vindictive look.
"Bandaids."
Iz bristled.
"At least I brought something, Mister Turn-Around-In-A-Full-Circle-Like-an-Idiot."
"Your words wound me."
Uziri pointed at the newspaper, expression set.
"That, Muffin!" she said, crawling towards it and ready to catch the little creature.
Opec yawned again and giggled slightly.
"Do you have any sugar?"
"MOOOOOFEEEEEEEEEEEEN!" Irizu yelled and began after Sister-thing.
"Hmm? Oh, yeah...lemme see if there's anything left..."
Picking his way over to the kitchen area, Isaiah wrenched open the fridge and scrounged through the meager contents. All of it was either pureed baby food or puddings and sweets the infant most definitely should not have been eating, but Isaiah didn't know any better.
"Ah, here we go."
Taking out a slice of what appeared to be birthday cake and a highly sugary juice box, Isaiah tripped, slipped, and fell over back to the couch.
"Enjoy."
Spotting the cake, Uziri jumped up and took a bit off right from the plate and flung it at the newspaper. Muffin peeked out, then ventured further to get the cake-scrap before being trapped by Uziri's hand.
"Gothoo," she said in triumph.
Opec stared in wonderment at the cake. He poked it carefully, retrieving a dab of frosting.
He licked his finger.
Okay, so it was sugar...good. He broke a piece off and chewed slowly, feeling awkward and so averting his eyes.
"Muffin!" Irizu called happily, and then noticed what Fuzzy Man was holding, "DAAAAAH!" She called, butt-hopping over to him with her mouth up and open like a baby bird.
Opec smiled, stabbed the juice box open with the straw, and squirted a bit of juice into the infants mouth.
Irizu, satisfied, returned to Sister-thing.
"Weezoo howd?"
Opec swallowed and nodded, still not looking at either vampire.
"Thank you."
Vaguely curious about the awkwardness springing from eating a well-aged piece of birthday cake, Oliver sat on the arm of the couch and unconsciously rubbed his jaw where Isaiah had struck him the first time. Iz noticed this, and rubbed his throat wearily.
Okay. It had been a bit of a bad night.
"You're welcome," Iz said belatedly, taking a perch on the opposite couch arm.
Uziri, busy trying to keep hold of Muffin and finally grabbing on to him with an aura-tendril, made a "eh?" sound and poked Irizu's head to cover the fact she hadn't been listening.
Opec heaved a sigh and flopped over, resting his head on Isaiah's lap and continuing to pick away at the cake. He was beginning to feel better as his blood chowed down on the sugar entering his system.
He swallowed.
"Do you forgive me?"
Irizu thrust a hand out.
"Weezoo howd skeeky?"
"Forgive you?"
Isaiah look down at Opec, uncertain. After all, it had been Isaiah himself that had acted like an insufferable child.
"...I do," he said, unsure what else to say.
"Yuh," Uziri said, dropping the mouse into Irizu's lap.
Opec looked for a place to put the cake, saw nothing but a collapsing cardboard box, and put it there. He then returned to his previous position.
Irizu smiled at Muffin, and then the cake. She pulled a hunk from the latter and plopped it in her lap beside the mouse.
"Fooh time!"
"But what now?" he asked, wrapping his arms around Isaiah's waist, "I still would like you to move in with me. Him too." Again, there was no need for names or indication.
"But I know neither is all that likely now..." He sniffled.
"Well," Iz said, resting an arm 'round Opec's shoulders, "I promise not to go...uh, well...completely crazy again and attempt to kill him...I'd still like to move in."
Oliver offered no comment other than a shrug. As long as it wasn't a sewer he didn't care where he lived. He glanced down at the children in sudden boredom, an eyebrow raising as he saw them playing with either a very large mouse or a runt of a rat.
The mouse and tried to leap for the cake, landing head-deep into it.
Tearing off a piece of cake for herself, Uziri gnawed at it and made inexplicable slurping noises, clearly enjoying herself and nearly taking her fingers off as she stuffed the cake into her mouth.
Opec's smile grew again. He suddenly disengaged himself from Isaiah and pulled a little leather notebook from a fold of fabric. He began scribbling in notes at random times and dates.
"Good," he replied simply once he was finished and wriggled over to Oliver, clinging to him for a turn.
Irizu giggled gleefully, clapping her hands together as she felt the mouse wriggle against her thigh.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
![[ Hot Chocolate. ]'s avatar](https://a1cdn.gaiaonline.com/dress-up/avatar/ava/6c/15/7e95b2ac30156c_flip.png?t=1292982835_6.00_00)
