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 Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2012 11:09 pm
Title: Hedge Maze
Starring Characters: Zurine, Cordelia
Summary: An incredibly difficult hedge maze, with added magical obstacles! Zurine meets Cordelia, and they manage to make their way out safely, if significantly wilted...
Note: The maze happened concurrently with the Secret Garden ORP.
Phiel's Opinion: I wasn't involved in this one...
Zurine's Opinion: I could go my whole life without ever doing that again...
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Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2012 12:03 am
Zurine came back into consciousness slowly, feeling hazy and sick. Her skin prickled with goosebumps as she lay still. Turning her head made her vision swim, so she closed her eyes again, letting out a quiet sound. There was a blanket over her, a light cloth, and the air conditioner had been turned up high. The room was as cold as it had ever been, and there was a bowl of water with a cloth resting folded over the edge sitting on her bedside table, next to a chair. A heavy blanket had been draped over the back of the chair, and in the darkness there was a slit of light spilling across the floor. The door was half open, and with her eyes shut Zurine could hear quiet talking from outside the door.
"She's sleeping," Phiel's voice came softly. "Adrian, I can't leave her tonight." His voice was tense and quiet, a little regretful. "Not until she's awake." There was a pause, and then a heavy sigh. She could picture in her mind's eye the way he'd shove a gloved hand through his hair when he was frustrated. "She overheated on the way home from a function and -- yes, I'm sure. No, I don't think she needs a doctor. I don't even think a human doctor would know what to do for her." There was a little humor in his tone, the curve of his smile gentle. "Don't worry, Adrian. I've got the Lab's number and if she gets any worse I'll call them. Yes, and you."
She couldn't help smiling just a little bit, rolling over onto her side and pillowing her cheek on her hand. It felt a little nice to be worried about, she thought. A little good to know that someone was thinking of her, even though Adrian wasn't someone she would have considered to be her friend. Maybe the distinction of 'friends' and 'everyone else' wasn't quite as clear cut as she had always considered it. For example, she thought, the girl that she had been through the maze with -- she didn't know if she would have considered them exactly friends, but she did like Cordelia. And she did like Adrian, because Phiel liked him, and because he thought of her even when she wasn't there. It was a little strange, but she liked it.
Closing her eyes, she exhaled a long sigh. The door closed quietly, and she could hear Phiel cross the floor. There was a quiet creak as he settled into the chair. "Zurine," he said it quietly. "Are you awake?"
"Yes," she said after a few moments. "I'm awake." The cool cloth gently touched her forehead again. "I'm sorry you can't go to work."
"You heard that?" Phiel chuckled ruefully as he gently swept her bangs back from her eyes. "It's fine. He's worried about you, too. Just... rest. I'll go back tomorrow."
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Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2012 12:06 am
"Are you all right?" Phiel asked after a moment, once Zuri had oriented herself. She sat still, rubbing her eyes with the heels of her hands. For a long moment she didn't answer, thinking about it, letting the coolness of the blowing air bolster her strength. She smoothed her hair back, gathering her wits.
"I'm fine," she said, coolly, swaying slightly to one side. "But maybe I should rest a little more. Just... a little bit."
Phiel couldn't help smiling as he flipped over her pillow, fluffing it so she could lay down on the cool side. "Probably for the best," he said solemnly.
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Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2012 1:06 am
Title: Early Morning Rivalry
Starring Characters: Jezabroux, Phiel
Summary: Phiel finds an old swimming rival from his high-school years in a chance, accidental swimming-race one morning after a long night-shift, and finds out they have more than a sport in common -- they both have raevans to care for!
Phiel's Opinion: And to think, I've been living so close to my old rival all this time. It's good to know I've still got it, heh heh. Also, an invitation to dinner? Sounds delicious.
Zurine's Opinion: I wasn't there... but I'm glad Phiel is so excited about this.
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Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2012 1:21 am
It was just after noon, and Phiel squinted down at the screen, and swore again. 'Adrian', the screen read. Three missed text messages, a voicemail, and now a phone call. "God damn it," he said, wearily heartfelt, and hit the green telephone to answer the call. "Cereus," he grumbled sleepily into the receiver.
"Phiel?" The man asked, his voice strangely cultured and mild. "Sorry, did I wake you?" He didn't sound particularly sorry, and Phiel found himself irritated, picking crumbs of sleep from the corners of his eyes.
"Yes. Yes you did," he grumped softly, and Adrian laughed. Unrepentant, just as he'd thought. Phiel wanted to throw the phone across the room and roll over, but he didn't. "What's the problem?"
"I've got a job for you this evening," the man said. "You'll want this one. He's a friend of yours, and he's offering four figures for one night's work..." Adrian was trying very hard to tempt him, dangling the promise of a paycheck before Phiel like you might tempt a wolf with a steak. Phiel was certainly looking forward to the dinner at Jez's house, but he thought with a pang about how much it'd be nice to have that paycheck under his belt. Perhaps he could reschedule with his old rival?
"You're ridiculous," Phiel grouched, voice husky with sleep, as he rolled over and stuffed his face into the pillow, bitching into the stuffing while Adrian laughed in his ear, sounding fresh as a spring daisy. "I hate you."
"I know," Adrian said, awfully chirpy for a grown man. Phiel could hear the smirk, and he couldn't help it. He smiled too, mostly against his will. "Shall I tell him you'll be there, and text you the details? It's not until ******** you. Fine," Phiel sighed deeply, and lifted his head enough to peer at the clock again. "I'll have to explain to the girl, too. We had plans with friends..." Guilt washed over him, but bills had to be paid, and who knew when he'd get this opportunity again? Adrian was still prattling cheerfully, and Phiel sighed deeply. "Okay. I'm back to sleep for now... text me the specifics and I'll be there." Without waiting for Adrian to respond, he hung up. He'd apologize later. For now, the bed was still calling his name, quite irresistibly.
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Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2012 9:50 pm
(Zuri and Phiel visit the fish store and add a new pet, just for Zuri.)
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Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 1:04 pm
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Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 1:07 pm
Title: Fair Weather Friends
Starring Characters: Zurine, Ethiriel, Leo
Summary: Zuri makes a new friend at an art show.
Phiel's Opinion: Well, as long as Zuri's making friends, I suppose I'm happy.
Zurine's Opinion: She's so lovely! I still feel a little bad about not realizing she was blind...
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Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 1:11 pm
Title: The Mysterious Case of the Bon Fire
Starring Characters: Zurine, Revontulet, Phiel, Doucette
Summary: S'mores on the beach with Doucette and Ren. Zuri meets a new friend.
Phiel's Opinion: Okay, maybe I shouldn't be such a recluse. This was fun.
Zurine's Opinion: Ren is so lovely... I'm excited to have her as a friend.
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Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 1:22 pm
Title: Sleeping Nest
Starring Characters: Zurine, Cesc
Summary: After the events of the Meaning of Fear meta, Zuri is called in to help the depressed, miserable Cesc in the only way she knows how.
Phiel's Opinion: I'm worried, but if Zuri's the only one that can help, I'm sure she'll do her best.
Zurine's Opinion: Anything I can do, anything at all, all you have to do is ask.
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 9:36 pm
Title: Snow on the Sea
Starring Characters: Zurine, Rhedefre
Summary: Ah, new love! Though it's not the first kiss, it's the most important thus far.
Phiel's Opinion: I wasn't here for this.
Zurine's Opinion: I can't express how wonderful things are at the moment. I'm so happy...
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 9:45 pm
Title: NONE YET
Starring Characters: Zurine, Cesc
Summary: ...
Phiel's Opinion: RESERVED
Zurine's Opinion: RESERVED
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 9:50 pm
It had perhaps occurred to her to seek help from her friends at first. In the beginning it had been a temptation, a constant comfort that frequently crossed her mind. If she needed him, Zuri knew that Cesc was nearby. Or Cruz, or any number of others that she could have called, but when she took hold of the telephone, she would simply carry around the cordless receiver awhile, peer into the backlit screen, and think.
It was the thinking that was the problem. Because when she would think, Zuri's mind would begin to fill with small, dark, traitorous thoughts. Everyone else is living their lives, the voice would say, and it sounded like a perfectly reasonable assertation. That was right, wasn't it? As the world warmed around her, the soft snows melting away into spring, everyone else was soaking up the warmth. She could picture in her mind's eye the spring sun on Cesc's face, making his hair glow, bringing her dearest friend a luminous smile. Or late-afternoon light, warm and luminous, and Cruz basking in it.
She was the only one, as the sun grew hot and hotter, that melted away, grew frail and thin and quiet. Zuri drew her windbreaker close, curled into it, and settled deep into her room. The urge to seek help began to fade. She picked up the phone less and less often, and when she did hold it, Zurine stared into the screen, looking at the programmed numbers, then back at the books she'd been reading. If she were to call someone, it would break the quiet. Even when Phiel spoke to her, her voice sounded fragile, jagged as the edges of a melting glacier, and she didn't want to trouble anyone.
The second lie that her mind tried to tell her was, everything you do troubles everyone,. That was a bitter revelation, and Zuri lay awake for days, sick with worry. Everything she did? Did that really mean everything? Phiel made sure that she was cared for. The thinness of her already-fragile body was not too much different from the fragility that usually occurred during the summer. He did his best to engage her, and he was successful in some things. Her reading skills escalated, and Zuri began binging on novels and poetry and anything and everything that Phiel had in the house. The world receded away further from her, washed away in the lukewarm comfort of words, and soon she began to feel even more lost. She could remember one day, the year before, when she had lost a balloon that Phiel had bought her. It had been tied to her wrist, but her clever fingers fussing soon had the slightly-too-tight knot undone. Before she could seize at the string, the balloon had caught a sea breeze. Within moments it had been beyond retrieving.
Zurine felt, before too long, as if she was that balloon, growing smaller and smaller, until it was only a round red dot against the endless blue of the sky. What happened to balloons, she wondered as she did sums in a notebook, her hand moving on automatic, when they got so far away that the drifting spot of red winked out?
At first that thought was terrifying. Zuri could not imagine what it was like not to be. The idea of it, of being gone, of the frailty of her body simply giving in and breaking... that was all too much to bear. She turned for comfort to the phone again, and finally -- with trembling hands -- tried to call her most beloved friend.
And the phone rang on and on into the quiet.
Zuri's heart -- what was left of it -- broke. She called twice more, mustering her energy against the heat of the sun, until that small dark voice in her head said into the fruitless ringing of the phone, it's better this way. The fading balloon growing small on the horizon seemed to disappear. It's better if you let him go, isn't it? If you keep calling, he'll answer one of these days, and he'll be fine without you, won't he? Because you've waited so long, it's just right to let him finish whatever healing he's got left to do --
Of course she'd hurt him -- she'd left him just when things were seeming sweet, hadn't she? --
-- and you can just go on about disappearing.
Numbness frosted over the wounds then. The fear seemed to go all at once. It wasn't precisely that she wanted to die, or even to be dead, only that things being as they were seemed too heavy, a ponderous enormous thing that simply seemed to go on forever and ever amen. Her room filled with paintings, dark smudged things that never turned out quite the way she wanted them to. She would finish one, study it as if she hoped to find something there, and then cast it aside.
Time, as it crept along, began to bring with it the cooler hours of evening and the rain, pattering softly on the window. The pall of heat and humidity lifted slowly, and day by day, Zurine found that voice, the dark and pessimistic one, beginning to lift with it. It was like pulling a curtain aside. For the first few days, it was like coming out of a dark room, blinking emptily into the sun with eyes that begged time to adjust.
The numbness receded like a tide, revealing the wrecked ship of her emotions beneath the waterline, and to Zuri, even this seemed to be a blessing. Life grew and loomed large, and in the light, even the jagged edges began to look beautiful.
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