Welcome to Gaia! ::

(( @Mimosa: Could you delete your last post in the Character Profile thread and edit your voice clips directly into your character profile? It'll get too confusing if the voice clips are separate from the character post. You can look at mine, if you want, since I linked to Sonnen's singing voice clips on Youtube.

@Nils: Sorry about that. xD I just wasn't sure what else to do with Tel, since I don't know him as well as Grace would. Sorry if I dragged him all about randomly. Also, when I'm posting during a time break like you just did, I try to think how my character would react to everything and if it reminded him of anything, like a memory or a mental note, and whether it was pleasant, and how that made him feel, etc. xD I keep thinking that my mind goes a million times a minute, and I have a reaction to everything happening around me and it makes me think of or about something, so it would only be natural that my RP character would, too, since it's human nature. I just have to tailor to how I think Sonnen would react instead of how Drake would react. But in a time break like that when there's a space where two characters are just walking or sitting or not directly interacting, in real life, I'd always be thinking about something; I just have Sonnen thinking about something Sonnen would think about.

Lovin that Japanese Shakespeare sonnet, btw. Nice work. I love Sindarin, too; I used to speak it exclusively around my house when I was seventeen because I was obsessed. When I would greet someone, it was always 'mae govannen' and I'd tell people 'Elen sila lumen omentielvo.' xD My high school English teacher would look at me like O_o. ))

OCC: Yessir!

(((OOC: Gomen. It's kind of hard to reply to something someone says in here though, in the OOC thread because that person may not know you said something in there in response to them... unless you actually tell them...)))

For a long while, Aya was reading silently to himself.
He didn't think on Tel's reaction, because the compliment had been replied to with a polite 'thank you' before both young men fell into their own books.
Tetsuya's reading had always been considered 'nice', though usually different adjectives described his voice than that.
They all meant the same however.
The half-Japanese man smiled slightly to himself before peeking over the top of his book.
'Is Tel asleep?' he thought.
Carefully, Aya stood, setting his book down in the seat of his abandoned chair. He moved over to stand behind Tel's own chair, watching the young man for a long moment.
When he heard the snores, Tetsuya knew that Tel was alright.
"He must be exhausted..." the Reader spoke softly, leaning on the back of the chair and watching Tel sleep. His long blond hair fell over his shoulders, framing his face. "I wonder if he's even gotten any sleep lately..."

Of course, to Aya, the idea of sleep was a common one. He liked to sleep... loved to in fact, and tended to sleep in more often than not.
Especially when sick.
But now that the Reader was feeling much better, though his throat was still a bit scratchy, he realized that he had gotten a full night's rest.
Had Tel?
Not to mention the young man had said that his debut performance for the Madame had been only hours earlier...
Thus, Tetsuya found himself with a bit of a problem...
Leave Tel to sleep?
Or...
Help him to his own bed?

New problem...
'Where the hell is his room?'
Of course Aya had no idea so, instead of actually moving Tel to the contortionist's bedroom...
Moving around the chair, Tetsuya carefully picked Tel up into his arms, careful not to wake the young man. He traversed their path backwards, leaving the library and heading down the hall. Eventually he came to the very same elevator as before... and Ajul didn't even utter anything more than a comment of worry for Tel's well being.
Once reassured that Aya was taking the young man downstairs to get some rest, Ajul allowed for the elevator to stop on Tetsuya's floor.

In no time at all, Aya had Tel inside his bedroom. The Reader walked hurriedly through the front room and into the bedroom, carefully laying Tel on the dark sheets.
Tetsuya sighed, pulling his hair back over his shoulders to keep it out of the way. He turned to the dresser and eventually had a small strip.
Waiting...
He always hated waiting...
But after putting the strip on Tel's forehead, then looking at the colored reading...
"Kuso... he's running a slight fever..." Aya whispered, as the strip had been a heat activated thermometer.
Who should he tell?
The Madame?
One of the staff?
Or should he simply look after Tel himself?
"Couldn't be that hard to take care of him." Tetsuya mused softly, his voice contemplative. "After all... it's more than likely my fault..."
Nodding to himself, having finally come to a decision, Aya went back into the front room, a room decorated in a traditional Japanese motif, and began to brew some tea.

Levant

What had he done? Levant stared after The Ire with a neutral expression bordering on remorseful. Though the uncertain and shaken face of Hershey's was far from the result he'd intended, in the end he still got what he wanted, hadn't he? The one and only person who could get under his skin had fled the scene. And now he could finally do his job. Yet, ********, there was this nagging feeling of pure and very much unneeded guilt. So what if he'd messed with the guy's mind a little? Teased him when he in a bad position? Gave him a little comfort then taken it away? Levant combed a suddenly tired hand through thick auburn hair in an attempt to ease some of his worries. The thoughts that he'd pushed to the back of his mind had come back with a fury. The one that stuck out most was of all things, was what Heresy would think of him now? But he didn't care anymore right? If only the guilt would go away, he might have been able to convince himself this was true. But he couldn't very well rush after the other man just to ...apologize. Even if he did manage swallow his pride for it, what would he say anyway? 'I'm sorry for not giving you a ... a helping hand? To ease your aches?' The whole thing sounded ridiculous. Or worse, but more accurately, 'I'm sorry for despising you enough to lead you on because of my own failures and shortcomings.' That thought gave him a double dose of guilt. Still, Levant could still go after him and see how things go.

But his feet began walking in the other direction. The Canadian had the guts to follow a man into a bathroom after such an encounter, but not Heresy. All rules seemed to bend around the purple haired teen. Including the one involving consequences. After any other encounter where he'd toss away all sense and done what he thought needed to be done, Levant had always managed to move on without so much as a hair out of place. But here he was, completely laden with guilt because he'd been a tease! Angry with that very fact, the man quickened his steps to the back of the theatre.

There he swiftly located the cameras and performed the necessary maintenence procedures. Checking to see if the wires were fully intact, the lens were clean, the batteries were alive and well, and other small menial things like that were briskly checked off. He was sure if Hershey was with him, it'd be a total bore. Then there'd have to be pressure to liven things up or something. And he really didn't want to think about him when his hands were a foot deep in the circuit unit for the building's security. Still, as his nimble fingers worked at cleaning and resoldering wires, a part of his mind kept straying back to the clenched fists and the quick exit. "It shouldn't matter," Levant said aloud in yet another attempt to comfort himself.

The circuit unit was soon secured. Next, he messed with the buttons on his earpiece again. A green screen popped up once more revealing everyone's locations. The golden light seemed safe sitting there with one black dot. Outside the area was of course, a mess of rose dots. Then his eyes strayed to ...the purple dot. He hadn't wanted to, really! It just happened. A force of habit. A part of him was happy to see that Heresy had indeed gone to the men's room. Most likely 'taking care of business.' Wait, why was he happy about that? Happy about which part? A man doing that was normal. Heresy doing that is normal. So what then? Before he could allow himself to explore this dangerous train of thought, he switched to the blue screen. With another touch of a button a transparent blue tinged keyboard popped up in the air before him. After cracking his knuckles, his fingers flew, entering exactly 574 commands in the course of five minutes. Seems like his team had added a few things to the theatre's security since the last time he'd tested it. Considering he'd done a third of the coding himself, it was easier for him. The average hacker would have taken at least half an hour. And all he'd done was hack himself into viewing the video stream. Everything appeared to be in working order. Clear with great sound quality and steady movement. Perfect. Five seconds before the alarm would be tripped, he safely logged out.

Levant was on the edge of wanting to check on everybody's locations again, but then he'd only end up having his mind invaded by thoughts of Heresy. That cursed, soulless, oversensitive grey eyed jackass. Even vaguely thinking about him now made him feel uncomfortably warmer than usual. He'd have to deal with all of that later when the time came. Apologizing to The Ire would only cause them both embarrassment and discomfort. Avoiding him would be nearly impossible with Heresy liking to hang around Usagi so much. Going on another mission so soon would make it look like he was running away. Pretending nothing had happened would be a bit of an insult if the other man didn't do it first. Of course, doing anything like it again was out of the question. So a middle ground was needed. He'd do what he always did when it came to the elusive middle ground. Wing it.

A few more buttons pressed later, Levant had finished up the maintenence for The Globe. The remaining cameras were in unreachable spots so they were only checked once a year or before very important events. Now with everything wrapped up here he may as well move on to all the floors of the mansion as well. Then maybe he'd play a little online chess and practice a bit of pool before bed. God knows he needed a good night's rest after everything that had happened this week. From the desert mission to walking in on Wisteria and Dark Eyes's to all this insane guilt. Maybe a few good dreams could help him sort everything out. Or ******** them up even further. Whichever option was fine. Just fine.

M. X. Geroux

There were many different types of tea that Aya knew he could make. Variations on specific herbs were usually his specialty. But taking into account Tel's tastes, especially his like of honey, the young man came to only one conclusion for a tea to help reduce the contortionist's fever...
Ginger.
It had a sweet tang to it that would make a delicious tea if brewed right.
Thus, Tetsuya was rather busy in his front room, standing at the nearly bare counter and grinding up some dried ginger with a mortar and pestle.
In truth, Aya didn't mind the work. He'd have a cup of the same tea himself shortly after it was made. Plus, Tel was really the first person for the Reader to have met during his whirlwind arrival at the mansion of the Madame.
He was getting used to things... getting himself settled in and, hopefully, honing his skills to attract a client as soon as possible.
"And I've yet to even perform..." Tetsuya spoke to himself with a semi-defeated sigh.
Despite the outward confidence that Aya seemed to show, the young man was seriously worried about how his skills would be received. Many people really didn't want a person to read them tales, at least no one that Aya knew, and while the gift would be terrific with children... he highly doubted any of his clients would be kids.
Continuing to grind the ginger, Aya's green gaze focused on the brush painting over the cabinets. He was so torn between two cultures that sometimes, the young man wondered if he belonged anywhere really. English literature, be it British or American, was his forte, but the part of him that loved his Japanese heritage with every fiber of his being longed to be reminded of home.
"Everything here makes me think of the western world..." he mused softly, setting down the ginger and gracefully pulling long blond hair back over one shoulder.
It was in the way again...

Focusing back on the idea of Tel being ill, trying to distract his own troubled mind away from thoughts of being homesick, Aya began to carefully brew the ginger with hot water. Not only did he do that, but the blond added some dissolved aspirin to the hot water, infusing the tea with a more modern means of a medical cure than mere herbs.
Of course Tel was asleep, so getting him to drink tea at the moment could be difficult.
Either way, Tetsuya wasn't about to give up. He would force the warm liquid down the contortionist's throat if he had to.
"This isn't the time to be worrying about myself... not when it was my own fault that Tel's sick..." Aya whispered softly as he placed the small teapot and a cup upon a rather old wooden tray.
In no time at all, Tetsuya was back in his bedroom, setting the tray down on the dark wood nightstand, and carefully pouring a cup.
"Tel-san?"
No response...
Aya nudged the young man, trying to gently shake him awake.
Nothing...
Frowning, Tetsuya stealthily slid into the bed, lifting Tel in his arms until he was sitting just behind the contortionist, the young man's head resting on the blond's shoulder. Aya lifted the cup of warm tea, he had made sure it would not be hot before bringing it into the bedroom, and carefully poured a very small amount down Tel's throat. He rubbed the young man's neck gently, urging the liquid to be swallowed on reflex, before repeating the process.
Tetsuya did this for a good hour, until all of the tea was finally gone from the cup.
Once more, the young man stood, carefully laying Tel back down on the soft feather pillow. The blond found it interesting how Tel's near platinum hair and pale features stood out in stark contrast to the dark linens.
Sighing, Aya then headed into the bathroom. He returned a few minutes later with a small bowl of cold water and a white washcloth. Once it was properly doused in the bowl, and rung out, Tetsuya placed it cool cloth over Tel's forehead.
It was about all he could do for the young man at this point.
"Let's see..." he mused softly, sitting in a chair next to the bed, one leg crossed over the other at the knee WHICH, in a yukata, would have been precarious had Aya not known how to sit that way without allowing someone to see up the cloth. "I've had him drink some ginger tea, which will certainly help... gave him aspirin for any pain and the fever... and now he's got a washrag on his head to help bring his fever down as well... well and he's in bed..." frowning, Tetsuya nodded. "I think that's everything I can do for now..."
Didn't mean he felt any better about having gotten Tel sick in the first place.

Thus... his vigil began.
In truth, Aya didn't move from the chair the entire night, save for a couple trips to the restroom, or to make some tea in the front room. He had grabbed a few books from his study, deciding to forgo working on his novel since that would entail smoking and that was certainly counter productive in this circumstance.
Thus, Tetsuya read his books and watched over Tel throughout the night.
By morning however... the blond had fallen asleep, bent at the waist with his arms pillowing his head on the side of the comforter.

((I think I'm dying of writer's block. XpX Not like my character was doing much anyway. I'm thinking of quitting. I don't want to, but...to have run into such a huge block so early makes me think I'm doin' it wrong...))