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 Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 7:19 am
Ike peered up at Julian, into his eyes, and then shot Mummy a kind of 'what the heck' look.
Rabid shook her head in response to her son and giggled. Julian was so cute when he was nervous, not that she'd seen him like this often.
"No, nothing new since yesterday," she smiled, "Although I have a daughter now. Don't know if Crow's told you."
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 7:23 am
Eager for conversation that wouldn't die off into uncomfortable silence, Julian nodded in fascination.
"Nah, she didn't mention it - Lenore said something about zombie-children, though. What's her name?"
Noticing Malachi's look at his changed eyes, he decided to ignore it. He hadn't had the nerve to look at himself in a mirror yet, and talking about it wasn't really gonna help things so soon...
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 7:30 am
"Clematis," Rabid smiled, glad for conversation that didn't involve posession or inane amounts of awkward silence, "We call her Clemmie, though. Liam's back at our room trying to figure out what we can do for her."
Ike bounded to Mummy and leaped onto her back once more. He leaned down and whispered, smiling.
"His eyes look like Ike's."
Hey...they kinda did...
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 7:46 am
"Clematis...pretty name. Is she, yanno, still....um, life-deficient?"
Dude. Where do I come out with this stuff. Really.
Hearing Malachi's observation, he raised a hand to his eyes, suddenly lost in thought. Touching his left eye with a fingertip, he wondered briefly what they looked like...
"Uh."
Snapping back to reality uncomfortably, he pointed randomly around.
"I was thinking of maybe going to look around the grounds for a little. Yanno, just for...uh, fresh air. Wanna come?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 7:51 am
"Undead, yes," Rabid laughed a bit, "You can say undead. I mean, you're talking to one." She noticed Julian's sudden wariness about his eyes and smiled slightly.
"It's not that bad," she sighed, "but, yes, I'd love to tag along."
Ike, then realizing that he had whispered a bit too loudly, dropped his head in shame.
"Sorry."
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 8:10 am
Buttoning up his coat a little clumsily (the claws, after all, would take a bit of getting used to), Julian gave a shrug and smiled pleasantly.
"I'll keep it in mind. And don't worry about it - I'll get used to 'em. It is what it is. C'mon, let's get outta here - I've missed the sun."
Pushing the door open and stepping out into the cold winter air, he closed his eyes in something like rapture as the sunlight touched his face.
"Ah, I've missed it..." he breathed, crossing his arms across his chest to block out some of the cold.
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 8:19 am
"Oh, right..." Rabid suddenly remembered the creepy dark palace of doom and shuddered involuntarily.
Tell him.
"Uh, Julian...I..."
TELL HIM.
"Err...I have to tell you something," she cleared her throat nervously and pulled on a curl, "After you...you know...I was pretty torn up."
She touched the small burn scar on the side of her head. Screw dancing around the point.
"I almost killed myself. Three times."
She fiddled nervously with the L.T.J. around her neck and started to step out into the cold.
Ike sighed and buried his head in Mummy's hair. This wasn't going to go over well, was it?
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 8:25 am
Julian's eyes flew open, and he couldn't help but gawk at Rabid.
"Uh, well, I..."
Man, that was sudden.
Running a hand through his hair, unsure how to reply, he couldn't help but share Malachi's feelings.
"Why did you...try to do that to yourself?" he asked, though kicking himself inside for asking something so stupid.
I shouldn't have told her what I felt when it first happened - I coulda killed her because I admitted I liked her! Gah, I'm so stupid!
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to - I just wanted to tell you- ah, jeez."
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 8:34 am
"I know," Rabid smiled at him, "and I'm glad you did. It's not your fault. Really. I'm just glad you're back."
"Ike apologizes on Ike's Mummy's be-heff," Malachi said, using the phrase he'd heard Mummy use many times before.
"Look, I'm sorry. Just forget I said anything, okay?"
Way to ruin a good day, dipshit.
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 8:44 am
Despite his sudden self-conscious discomfort, Julian gave a snort of quickly choked-off laughter as Malachi apologized.
"Already forgotten. Let's go look around - the place seems a little bigger since the last time I was here."
He pointed to the distant mountains to prove his point, wishing more than anything to keep the conversation light and amiable. He'd had no one but Jeddeth to talk to for far too long - he was starved for pleasant company.
"I mean, c'mon, what happened around here? Growth spurt or something?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 8:52 am
Rabid gave a short laugh, relieved for the change of subject.
"Yeah, pretty much," she smiled and peered up at the mountains, "We woke up one morning and...yanno. Poof."
"OHMEGAWSH," Ike said, suddenly excited to be able to show Julian around, "There's'a maze 'nd it's big 'nd cool 'nd...'nd...'nd...the lake 'n the fo--bah."
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 8:57 am
Julian, thankfully, didn't catch what Malachi had choked off mid-word. Thinking "fo-bah" must be some kind of.... well, he wasn't actually quite sure, he nodded eagerly.
"A maze? Jeez, you guys gotta show me around so I don't get lost."
He started trudging through the snow, looking around in fascination. Pausing and looking back at Rabid over his shoulder, he gave another shy smile.
"I'm going to be living here for a while - until I can get things straightened out. A couple months, at the least. Maybe you could show me around when I'm not as...well, y'know..."
Good grief. Way to be subtle, you dork.
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 9:06 am
Rabid arched an eyebrow and jogged to catch up, completely ignorant to anything but Julian wanting to be shown around.
"Yeah, sure, of course. Oh! I was told to ask if you'd been losing bits of black smoke. Ooh! Lookit the lake. It's effing huge."
Ike, acting on an impulse, leaped from Mummy's shoulders to Julian's. He'd figured that the man wasn't doing so great, physically, so he did everything he could to hold up most of his own weight.
"Ike'll show you around. He went a'splorin wit Leem a lot when Mummy were...sick."
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 9:14 am
Black smoke? He looked around himself to check if anything was leaking.
"Nope, no smoke."
Looking out at the lake, he whistled appreciatively and wandered in its direction.
"Jeez, it's big. How much did I miss when I was gone?"
Walking carefully to make sure Malachi could keep his balance, he stuffed his hands into his pockets and shivered at the clean cold air. He didn't mind the cold here - it was so different from the morgue-like cold of the Fortress.
"Cool. And..." he turned his head to Malachi, speaking quietly so that Rabid (hopefully) wouldn't overhear.
"...that Liam guy. Who is he, exactly? Not that I'm being nosy or anything - he said something about rescuing me, and...I dunno, I guess I just wanna know about him..." he mumured, feeling particularly silly asking a toddler for information.
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 9:22 am
"Good. That would mean you were leaking soul. Not good. Watch out for that."
Liam'll be proud that his pills are working.
Rabid's thoughts were interrupted by Julian's whispering. Her curiosity was sparked for a moment, and she thought to ask. Almost immediately, though, she figured that anything anyone asked a toddler couldn't be half bad...especially a toddler that had to answer to her.
"He's Mummy's boyfriend," Ike whispered back and paused for a few moment as if he was finished. Sometimes he just felt like being a jackass, but felt immediately guilty.
"Actually, he's Mummy's old bestest friend. Kinda like Miss Crow. Heesa ne...neck...neckri...magical dead-thing guy. He's kinda maked uff metal too."
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