Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Yeah?" Werika started every one of his phone calls that way. Sevilin found it horribly rude, but it wasn't like his guardian ever took his etiquette tips to heart. Usually, he did the exact opposite just to piss the sea fairy off. Eventually the raevan just stopped caring, and this was exactly one of those times. Sitting on the couch with the Discovery channel being inconspicuously turned down so he could eavesdrop, Sevilin remained quiet as he pointed his fins toward the kitchen.

"Speakin'," the older man continued without a care. It wasn't until he found out who was on the other end that he finally straightened up. "Oh, Alex, hey--" Thankfully, she apaprently cut him off before he embarrassed himself. "Get ready like... right now--? Okay, okay... I--Yeah, I don't see why not. Yeah, we'll be there. Both of us. See you soon." He looked a little stunned when he hung up. His brown eyes met Sevilin's blue immediately, and the frei waited patiently for the answer to We`rika cryptic expression.

"That was Alex." As if that wasn't obvious, Sevilin grumped to himself. "Kyou hasn' been in touch with her in awhile. She thinks he migh' be in trouble or... somethin' I dunno. But I told her we'd come help."

"Of course!" Sevilin said resolutely, as if there was simply no other answer than to accept.

"Ge' yer stuff together--"

"Wait, right now?"

"Yeah... Righ' now."

It was in that moment LuLu chose to emerge from her shared bedroom with a luggage bag in tow. The sigel blinked sheepishly between the two before she gave a feeble attempt at hiding the enormous suitcase. She thought they had left the apartment. The girl peeped, "Ah, I am going out. For a while." In all honesty, the girl had picked up on a call that was meant for both her and Josh. Sadly, the boy had left his cellphone behind while he had gone off looking for work. That had given his raevan free reign over his calls.

The call from Alex had been a shock at first. Especially with the urgent tone she had used. The woman had mentioned something about a guy name Dr. Kyou and another detail about a raevan, Laz. All those names meant nothing to her though. What had caught her attention was the fact Zul was going to be present on the trip. That accompanied with possible danger set off a switch in the rabbit's mind. LuLu needed to be there in case anything bad happened to her brother.

Next, Josh emerged through the front door. Only he had the joy of staring between LuLu, packed as though prepared for a mini apocalypse, and his two roommates. The boy muttered, "What did I miss?"

"Whoa, where--?" We`rika only made it half way in front of LuLu before he was promptly interrupted by Sevilin.

"What's with the suitcase?" He tried to make it sound flippant, but there was a thread of suspicion and worry that tugged at his insecurity and left him vibrating with anxiety. But no one had the chance to learn anything when Josh suddenly came out of nowhere as if by teleportation instead of his own door and asked yet another question.

"No' sure, actually..." And the older man genuinely meant that. He had no ******** clue what the hell just happened to all four of them at the exact same time. Frankly, it was a little creepy like fate was trying to tell them something, and We`rika didn't like being told what to do. "LuLu, why don'cha fill 'im in?" And by extension, the rest of the class. Atta girl!

LuLu pouted at We'rika before she scanned over her small impromptu audience. Seh took in a breath of air before she began, "Ms. Alex said some Dr. Kyou went missing in a jungle. Everyone has to come help but I want to go so i can see Zul. I have to go before the bus leaves." She spoke without pause and looked up to Josh once she finished. She gauged his expression carefully.

Josh's eyes widened as he took in her story. Then, in time, his brow furrowed. The boy groaned, "You mean, we all have to go? Now, now?" The boy could not contain his sigh of frustration. "I have a job interview tomorrow afternoon. Jeez, if it is for Dr. Kyou though. I cannot say no. I owe the guy a ton." Lu's guardian seemed wrapped in an internal struggle in that instant.

However, LuLu broke his thoughts with her own curt decision. "No, go to the interview. That is more important." The girl's eyes seemed fierce. In all honesty, she was impatient to get a form of income in their household again. The sigel did not want to see an opportunity slip so easily out of her guardian's hands. Josh was about to protest when she cut him off again. "Sevilin and We'rika will be going to, right?" She looked to them for support on her choice to have Josh stay behind.

"Oh yeah, you're job!" Sevilin spoke up, having realized the three of them had been practically marking down the days until this moment. Now it was here, and they were all going to leave him the night before.

"Yeah, we're def'nly goin'," We`rika agreed, putting his cell phone back into his pocket. "If you let her go, we'll look after her. She'll have her prince," he teased with a s**t-eating grin that made Sevilin turn red-faced with fury. "And her troll." Well, if his son was going to be a fanastical character, the man had to have his own as well. A troll seemed the most appropriate, all things considered.

"Yeah, my job." It was definitely much needed especially now that he was nearly on his own in taking care of LuLu. In the grand scheme of things Josh was probably Lu's right hand man, her adviser (not that his word was heeded all that often). However, in that moment, Josh should have been the one called a troll. He wore the grumpiest look imaginable when he finally gave in. The boy chided to his raevan, "I am letting you go. I trust We'rika and Sevilin to keep you safe. But! Try not to cause them too much trouble." The boy felt that detailed should have gone without saying. Still, LuLu had a way of finding danger for herself.

LuLu nodded to her guardian. Her cheeks still lightly tinted due to We'rika's comment about 'princes'. She tugged her bag closer to the front door.

There was silence for a moment between the four of them until We`rika had to interrupt it as only he could. "Alrigh', this's gettin' gay. Sev, le's go pack." Tapping the back of his frei's head with his hand, he passed LuLu with a wink (reserved only for her, and if she ever told anyone!).

The sea fairy followed behind, rubbing the back of his head as if he had been woefully wounded from that brush with death. He floated into his room and took out his own dufflebag that was an old one of We`rika's. If this was a rescue mission, then he only needed four plushies. Hmm, this was going to be a difficult decision.

The color in the sigel's cheeks only flared brighter due to the wink. Josh merely rolled his eyes. Only We'rika could act like... well, We'rika and get away with it. He sat on the vacated couch. After a few moments he turned to LuLu. "What is in your bag anyway? Your whole room?"

LuLu practically choked on her response, "NO!!! I need all of this." She seemed offended at anything besides taking her whole wardrobe with her. She would hear none of it from her guardian. If she wanted to bring a bag large enough to fit a toddler in than she would. She flipped a braid prissily. Her guardian could not help but chuckle. Heaven help Sevilin and We'rika. LuLu in a jungle. He really wished he could join them.

Sevilin was the practical one of the freis; he only brought half of his wardrobe and only a handful of his plushies. The dufflebag bulged at the seams with nothing useful. We`rika was entrusted with being somewhat sensible. Survivalism was never his thing, but luckily for the two princesses, the older man had to live out in the desert for long stretches of time for pilgrimages. The basics were forever engrained into his subconscious since childhood.

"We`rika, are you--?" The young frei, hauling his heavy dufflebag across the living, seemed surprised he wasn't waiting beside LuLu with his things. he made a detor, instead, to his guardian's room. "Wow, I can't believe I beat you packing."

"Shaddup!" We`rika scoffed, throwing a pair of jeans at his son. "I'm makin' sure we actually have stuff thas, ya know, useful unlike plushies and clothes."

"Well, these things are useful to me," the blue raevan huffed before returning to the living room with Lulu and Josh. "I hope it's not humid," he said to his fellow frei. They both knew full well what it could do to beautifully sculpted hair.

LuLu and Josh were a chip from the same block, but that was bound to happen once you lived together with someone for years. Both rolled their eyes unamused at Sevilin's potential hair crisis.

The rabbit had grown bored waiting for them to depart. She really should've just left on her own after all. By now she could be at least halfway across town... or still stuck at the bus stop with no money. Something like that. Nonetheless, the sigel felt the need to bemoan her situation. "Sevilin is right. You are taking soooooo long."

Josh could only scoff from his place on the couch, safe from the cross fire.
"Oh, yeah? You think so?" We`rika's booming voice carried easily into the living room. Soon after, he emerged with his own dufflebag and decided to plant himself right in front of LuLu. Thankfully she was only half a torso, so his measley five-foot-seven-inches was actually still intimidating. "Well guess who's in charge, sunshine?"

"He is," Sevilin mumbled, completely deadpan.

"I am," the older man continued, ignoring the fact that his own son was making fun of him in favor of scowling at Miss Bossy Britches. "Maybe I should just leave you here. You and Josh can keep the place clean while Sev and I do all the hard work..."

LuLu rose to her full five feet, hands on her newly formed hips (already getting use out of them). She did not need to say a word. Her expression said everything for her. A sharp glint in her eyes and shake of her head from side to side signalled that We'rika was dragging her along whether he liked it or not. "He thinks he is." LuLu giggle softly as she led herself out the front door.

"Lu--! Goddamni'!" We`rika was out of the apartment before he could finish cursing. He stormed after the girl to catch up before she did something they would all regret together.

Sevilin, floating in the doorway with his dufflebag, looked back at Josh with a sympathetic smile. "We'll, ah, call you when we get to... where ever it is we're going. Okay?" Really, the little ravaen felt bad leaving the young man all by himself out of the blue, but Sevilin certainly wasn't going to let a good adventure slip through his fingers. "Uhm, good luck with your interview! Call us about it, alright?" With that, he slowly closed the front door behind him and chased after the two bumbling idiots as they squawked loudly down the corridor. "Hey, wait for me!" he shouted, though who knew if it was heard over their ruckus.

LuLu was not sure how long she had been staring at the blur of scenery just beyond the window. What she did know was that it had been long enough for her newly formed stomach to become unsettled. The girl reached down and brushed her hand along the still foreign stretch of skin. Realizing what she was doing, LuLu shifted to tuck her pink blanket back into place on her lap. She looked out over the bus. Her surroundings were not much more stable than the streaked foliage and road outside. For now, the rabbit watched the bustle of the other humans and raevans around her.

Genie and Basil had not spoken a word to each other since they saw the five-mile marker outside Durem city limits. They were five miles from home. Five miles closer to some uncertain fate that made Genie want to puke her guts out, and Basil want to stare fixedly at the rubber traction strip up the length of the aisle for the whole eight-hour drive. Looking around was a sea of unsettled faces. Solemn and quiet and uncomfortably still. Like the world's worst camping trip.

Basil had his hood pulled up tight. He found comfort in it. In the feeling of being swallowed up by his clothes. Waiting and listening to at least two-dozen anxious heartbeats. Almost without realizing, he had been rocking back and forth since they had seen the road-sign, his forehead sometimes tapping the back of the seat in front of him. Kissing his skin to the wrinkled green canvas while Genie tapped her fingers and slumped against the window. Obviously that put him in the aisle seat. When he finally stopped rocking, he was leaning forward, hands folded in his absence-of-a-lap. Head tilted to the seat. He turned up his eyes for the first time in forty minutes, and met Lulu's almost instantly. Too quickly. The contact startled him. He wasn't ready for it. He looked down again quickly.

LuLu had not gotten the “joy” of being in the seat in front of the furiously rocking cobra. The sigel was startled too when her lavender eyes finally focused enough to lock with Basil’s. She jumped in her seat with a small fright. The boy looked beyond disheveled and anxious due to the way he was nervously wrapped into himself. He almost reminded her of a frightened animal, his eyes peering out from the dark depths of his hood. The rabbit felt the need to help him. She offered him a soft smile hoping to provide some comfort. Her ears twitched forward. She vaguely recalled him from some event long ago but introductions seemed needed. “Hello there. I am LuLu.” The girl offered a nod to Genie.

Basil did not look up from the floor right away. Either because he hadn't heard her, or was pretending that he didn't.

There was an awkward ten-second stretch where her introduction hung in the air. The way a dead husk of a fly dangles from a destroyed cobweb. Genie seemed to be in a separate world entirely. Her left hand (the one tapping the fingers) rested at her side, forming a tight fist around an unseen wad of damp, doughey kleenex. The other was touching her forehead, her hand forming a visor over puffy, oversensitive eyes. She was silent and stone-still, and did nothing to imply she was aware of having been acknowledged. Only her chest moved gently and rhythmically, her breath leaving a dewey vapor on the window she was leaning against.

Basil looked up finally, his face blank and left completely open to interpretation. No hostility, no annoyance, but also a distinct lack of enthusiasm or friendliness. He didn't sit up straight, his head remaining tilted to the seat in front of him, making him seem smaller and shiftier, like a lizard under a rock.

His eyes briefly flicked her ears before settling on her face. The pupils narrowed suddenly and tightly into black splinters, then filled out again into two dark moons. His mouth was tight and grim and colorless, but seemed to be working on a reply. His adam's apple bobbed with a swallow, and his voice came hoarsely, "Basil..."

LuLu waited with her smile intact for the first five seconds. However each preceding second dragged on pitifully like watching a man limp to water. It made the quirk in her pouty lips falter more and more. By the ten second mark, her expression seemed more confused than reassuring. Her gaze darted between Basil and Genie. Her brow knitted as though asking for SOME kind of response from either of them, even if it was just telling her to sit back down in her seat. She realized this excursion was not made on the best circumstances. Still, she did not understand why the two looked this downtrodden. Had something else happened to them? Was this Kyou guy that important?

The way Basil looked at her sent a shiver down her lengthened spine. The ways his pupils dilated and contracted was off-putting. He now seemed less like a hurt animal and more like a…. predator. Still, the girl felt like that corner of the bus needed a bit more cheerfulness. She would task herself with the challenge.

LuLu could not make much of anything from his behavior or appearance. The rabbit pressed on though, “Have you been on a bus before?”

Basil sighed deeply, followed by another uncomfortably long wait for his reply. Five seconds at the most, really, but all five of them were lingering, and they seemed to make him incrementally more exhausted. He pressed a finger to his mouth, clipping off the nail of his pinky, then set his front teeth burrowing at what may have been a hang-nail. In between the chewing, he seemed to be giving the question serious thought, his eyes distant and unfocused.

"I don't know," he said, muffled, "Maybe? Once? I..." He trailed off and spat the nail-clipping, then turned his face away. He leaned his head further into the seat, almost like he was trying to push his face right through it. His lips started to move, whisper-like.

"(Have you been on a bus before?)" he said privately, and paused for a reply. There was some muttering after, none of it discernible. Genie finally glanced at him from the window, but did not take more than a second's inventory of their surroundings. Like she was checking to make sure her luggage was still there.

She didn't seem to know who he was talking to, Lulu or otherwise, but didn't consider it for long. She went back to the window, pinching the space between her eyebrows.

Basil turned back to Lulu, this time with a new confidence in his reply, "No, I guess we haven't... You?"

LuLu watched Basil in morbid interest. It was like watching a car accident grow progressively more gruesome with each car piled on top. Basil conducted one peculiar habit after another which added curiosity of the scene. The nail biting rubbed the relatively prim sigel in a way she had not expected. It made her awkwardly hyperaware of her own fingers. She tightened them on the bus seat before the digits fanned open for her to inspect their polished tips. Already the red enamel on her ring finger had a chip at the tip. The rabbit scrutinized the flawed color to give the cobra time. It was enough to sort his helter-skelter thoughts out and for her to grab a nail file from her purse.

LuLu quirked her head up when he had finally given a solid answer, one in a tone that did not come off as the mumblings of a serial killer. She gave herself the spectacle of Basil discarding his drool coated nail clipping onto the seat. She tried to hide the wrinkling of her nose. Polite. She had to be polite.

LuLu was delighted to hear Basil’s voice with added confidence. It sounded much smoother that way and ended less roughly on her sensitive ears. Nonetheless, his use of ‘we’ threw her off. The girl replied in a tight tone, “I have. You meet interesting people on busses.” She was careful in choosing her words as to not offend. She was uncertain of her new acquaintance’s triggers or boundaries and she hoped to avoid any pitfalls.

She still held the nail file in her small palm. Her eyes scanned to the ragged end of his pinky finger. Without much thought she chirruped, “Pass me your hand.” After reflection, “Please.”

Basil was worrying at the nail of his ring finger next, but stilled at the suddenness of her request. The nail was still gripped firmly between his teeth with all the guiltiness of a bloody handprint, his eyes wide and brows knitted in a way that was either suspicious or considering.

He decided it was finally time to sit up, which was a demonstration in and of itself. His wings were bladed and bulky, and needed special maneuvering. He tried to spread them length-wise, but with Genie barely six inches away, he found himself trying to lean at an angle, and unsuccessfully at that. Faster than he could help it, a bladed tip began rending the green canvas with a soft purring sound, revealing a yellow foam material underneath. He glanced over his shoulder blankly, but only for a moment. It was hard for him to check the damage without turning all the way around. He probably didn't want to know, anyway.

He was upright now, but slouched. He squinched his eyes, rubbing at his forehead and down to his eyelid as though he had just woken from a deep sleep. He turned slightly to Lulu, where they could now get a better look at each other. Basil seemed more awake at least, but cautiously curious. He held out his right hand, palm-down and almost secretively. Like they were spies making a dropoff.

Though innocuous when folded away or shoved in his pockets, when held in the open, Basil's hands were a curiosity. For starters, he had long fingers. Freakishly long. Jointy and spidery--and from the sheer amount of scarring--very prone to accident. When matched to his palms, they looked cage-like. Like a pair of jaws or a steel bear-trap. Mostly they were good for piano-playing, though the black crescents of filth under his surviving nails suggested less wholesome hobbies...

LuLu breathed a sigh of relief when she was able to salvage a nail that had been doomed to a similar fate as Basil’s pinky finger. She tried to ignore the nagging voice in her head that told her that once her work was done the frei would probably just get right back to gnawing at his hands like they were freshly baked cakes. No, she was doing this for his good.

The rabbit waited patiently as Basil tried to maneuver himself upright in his narrow seat without beheading an innocent bystander. She almost felt the desire to lend him a hand. However, once she saw the back of his seat ripped apart like softened butter that desire perished without a second consideration. She preferred both hands firmly jointed onto her wrists. The sigel had learned that form her first encounter with Cruz.

LuLu took Basil’s palm. Hers was facing up and seemed dainty, practically miniscule, in comparison to his elongated fingers. She started with his smallest digit. The sigel traced gently up a protruding knuckle, her fingers paused at the bulbous joint before they continues forward to grab at the tip of his pinky finger. The LuLu paused. She paused a good long while. Her eyes were locked onto the grime embedded into his nails as though they were some kind of monster. She blinked back her shock and could not help the first giggle that rolled from her chest. Her laughter grew in volume until she could feel tears beading at the corners of her eyes. LuLu was laughing at the sheer ridiculousness that was Basil. It was likely her brain had melted while trying to understand how one individual could be such a hot mess all at once. It seemed illegal. It seemed inconceivable. Yet, here was such a rare and mythical beast. Basil was like a stunted unicorn, as glorious as he was pitiable. LuLu’s response? Laughter. It was the only thing keeping her from screaming.

The rabbit remembered her task and began to file at his torn nail. A few hiccupping giggles still on her breath,“You are a unique person.”

To look at them together, their hands were as different as two hands could possibly be, and the contrast between them seemed absurd enough to be cartoonish. Hers were small and brown and feminine. Soft and clean like a silk slipper, but more than that, they were warm and mammalian. Basil's however, were long and large and damaged. But also cold. Freezing cold. Cold and dirty like a freshly dug corpse. The contact between their skins almost startled him, and her warmth sent a tingle shooting through his wrist to his shoulder. A pins-and-needles feeling, like climbing out a steaming hot-tub and then jumping in a swimming pool.

She handled him with finesse, either in an effort to touch him as little as possible, or out of an inherent delicateness. Her fingers traced over his before grasping his pinky with similar propriety. She stopped there, and suddenly he felt that the mood had shifted. He didn't know why or how. It was so hard to navigate these situations once they took a left-turn. Most of the time he felt like a kid on a bike that somehow manages to run straight into the only lamp-post for miles. But then, weren't they always telling those kids not to focus on obstacles? 'Don't worry, Johnny! Riding a bike is like living your life. You'll head wherever you're looking!'

But then, Basil didn't have legs OR a bike, so that advice was pretty wasted on him. In this case, he looked up in time to see Lulu's eyes widen in something like horror. His lips parted with a popping sound as his jaw fell open.

"...What?" He said just under the avalanche of her laughter. HARD laughter. Loud and side-splitting kind of laughter that left him completely at a loss. At first he was just confused, but soon he started to feel nervous. Like a cold hand was gripping his organs. His cheeks flamed. He swallowed, his eyes unconsciously narrowing into slivers. The laughter obviously roused Genie from her staring-contest with the window. She looked at Lulu, who was all but pointing as Basil while she howled, and her face set into a flinty grimace. She stared across the aisle with an expression of pure heat, touching Basil's shoulder defensively.

Basil didn't notice. He pulled away from the laughter. Not physically, but behind his eyes. Into his body, deeper down, like a turtle pulling into its shell, until her laughter sounded hollow and horn-like. Like she was talking through one of those cardboard rolls for gift-wrap. He felt like he was literally being sucked inside his sweatshirt. A cottony warm darkness. Genie's fingers bit into his shoulder. Lulu stopped, her eyes glinting at the corners with tears and amusement.

When she had finally gotten ahold of herself, she started on his nail, the file rowing back and forth in a delicate sawing movement. She met no resistance. The hand was limp, and to look at the face in the hood, nobody was home. His color was high, his pupils shrinking away into hyphens of concentrated nothingness. When Lulu spoke, they slowly rounded, though they were the only part of his face with any motion. The only thing that implied a face and not a costume-mask. His voice was hoarse and uncertain. The corners of his mouth scrunched. He tilted his head down by a fraction, almost imperceptibly, "What... was that? I didn't... hear... you." He swallowed tightly.

LuLu looked to Genie and was started by her glare. She was suddenly very conscious of her actions. Oh dear, that had been rude hadn’t it? Now that she reflected back, laughing in a person’s face without telling them what the big ‘joke’ was often made you seem like a giant dirt bag. The sigel had not given laughing much thought at the time it occurred. It had seemed the better option as opposed to flinging Basil’s hand away like it was riddled with plague.

The rabbit tried to backpedal to a safe place all the same. Her voice grew softer and more reassuring, “You are unique. That is not bad. I have not met anyone like you.” LuLu gave his hand a gentle squeeze, still mindful of any dirt. She had not noticed when he slunk back into his seat and hood. She tried tilting her own head to get a better view. “Sorry I did not know how to react right.” She started on his next nail, the ring finger, with her even filing motion.

As Lulu did her best to explain with a new humbleness, Basil began to nod slowly and Genie retreated by inches. She still looked good and pissed off, but the tension started to drain visibly from her body. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her face looked haggard. She hadn't been sleeping well. She wasn't in the mood to referee. Still, she leaned towards the boy confidentially and hissed his name, "Basil."

It sounded fierce, almost like a reprimand. He flinched at the sound, but it was clear he understood. He knew Genie well enough at least that he could read between the lines. It said, 'it's going to be a long trip. If she's bothering you, it's okay to turn away. Let me know if I can help.' He told her it was alright in a low voice, which pacified her for the time being. She gave another glance at Lulu before slowly easing back into her original position.

Once he had dismissed her, Basil seemed to relax a bit. He breathed deeply, and for the first time he smiled. Only one side of his mouth hitched in a sneer. Quickly. It broke his formerly solid expression almost with an audible crack. He even laughed. A nervous, wheezing sort of sound that gradually filled with his voice. It wasn't quite as loud or extreme as Lulu's laughter, but a laugh nontheless. His breath shuddered and he watched the soothing movement of the file. He smiled more deeply, his eyes wincing, "It's okay... I have that problem too. I'm Basil, by the way," As though he had forgotten that he had already introduced himself. With all the tension, maybe he had. He quickly followed up, "What are you doing, anyway?" His eyes flicking the metal file.

LuLu watched Genie settle in the corner of her eye. She felt herself relaxing too now that a scathing glare was a safer distance away from her. One ear twitched curiously at their privately intended conversation. LuLu lacked an ability to pick up on subtleties though and most of the nuances of their terse exchange went above her head.

The girl slipped into her monotonous motion again. The space between them was filled with his laughter and the scrape of the file. Both grating sounds were eerily similar. LuLu smoothed, “It relaxes me when I file my nails. You looked nervous.” There might have also been a hidden agenda of making his nails too short for him to bite off, but that could remain a secret for now. She cooed his name, “Baaasil.” She stressed it just slightly too demonstrate that she had heard him clearly.

He nodded agreeably. If soothing him was the intended outcome, it was working. He couldn't tell what it was. Maybe it was the contact or warmth of her skin. Maybe it was the repetitive movement of the file, which distantly reminded him of Cordelia's metronome. Maybe it was the gentle scraping sound, or just the simple fact of having nothing to do but sit there and be tended to.

This stranger was awfully nice. Took his mind a little further from his troubles. Despite her swillingness to protect him, somehow a coldness was discernible between Genie and the cobra. A widening gap, as though they had started a fight before leaving the house and didn't have the energy or opportunity to resolve it. Maybe it wasn't a fight, so much as a simple conflict of interests... From appearances alone, Genie seemed openly and unashamedly in mourning. She seemed to be dreading this trip, and the farther from home they got, the more despondant and on-edge she became. Basil on the other hand seemed bored and resigned, and maybe a bit sad. Both of them looked like they had a story. A bigger picture, and Lulu was on the outside-looking-in.

Basil's eyelids lowered and his shoulders hunched. He looked distracted and content, watching his nails disintegrate painlessly into white dust. He mumbled what sounded like a thank you. Just for being nice. For being helpful. His free hand went to his face, where he idly scratched an unseen sideburn. A coarse, sandpapery sound. He glanced up at the mention of his name. The way she drew it out, softly and almost playfully. Her teeth met in a hiss. The 's' in the middle. He liked that. He liked her. This was nice.

He parroted the gesture. "Looooo-loooooo." The first syllable was a higher octave than the second. Like the two-noted rhythm of a foghorn, or a bizarre bird-call. His voice was low, and with a bass. He smiled, his teeth showing, and astonishingly enough, a cleaner white than one would expect.

LuLu was not dim enough to miss the stress clouding around both Genie and Basil. To be honest, though the tension was nearly palpable, the rabbit did not particularly care to pry. If this simple action was enough to take the frei’s mind off of things than she was happy to provide a small reprieve to him. She could tell it was working, too. Their close call seemed not as close now that they had both settled into the task. The muted scraping lulled LuLu just as much as it did Basil. It also helped that the grime under his nails was being taken away along with the over growth.

His guardian was another matter however. Her grief seemed much past anything a nail file could solve.

When LuLu had finished his first hand she gave it one more squeeze, one that hung there and would certainly warm the cold extremity to the bone. It made her feel better knowing that she had left the cobra with a pleasant mark that would linger with him. The sigel mumbled back, “You are welcome.”

Her name was modest but the sheer number of ways others had found to say it amused her. The way this frei voiced her title was as unique as everything else about him. She repeated his, “Basil, do you always wear your hood?” She was curious what was causing that noise from beneath it. It sounded like something from a tool box. Not a noise that belonged on a person’s face. Her eyes crinkled as she smiled at him, returning his gesture. One of her hands was held out as a silent request for them to continue filing on his next set of fingers.

A small current of warmth radiated from the squeeze of her hand. It was unexpectedly pleasant.

He was grateful for this kind of small-talk. That she didn't feel the need to mention the obvious and over-arching scenario. Why they were on this bus. The grim circumstances under which they had all been summoned...

For the most part, she seemed collected and unconcerned, and he admired her for it. For her ability to stay calm in the face of uncertainty. It was infectious.

She released his hand and he immediately inspected her work. There was still evidence of gnawing at the cuticles, but he could see that all the nails were given nice, uniform edges. They would have looked better with some buffing, but were noticeably cleaner. He seemed puzzled at first. Obviously he had never given his nails much thought, and didn't realize that this was actually a THING. That people did this. He wouldn't say he was baffled, but he did make a 'huh' sound under his breath. A well-would-you-look-at-that kind of sound. At first, he had inspected his nails in the more masculine tradition-- with his palm facing him, his fingers curled down to form a ridge of knuckles. But then he turned his palm quickly outward-- the feminine way. Fingers spread, his palm towards Lulu, where a long white scar was visible. Bigger than those on his knuckles and wrists. It was clean and straight and very tight-looking. As though you could just pull it right open with a 'pop'. Like breaking a seam or opening a sideways eyelid.

He then held up his other hand up for comparison, and his expression was priceless. He quickly surrendered his other hand to her, clapping it over hers. He chewed on his lower lip for a moment--apparently he'd chew on just about anything--and suddenly his face opened with realization. She'd asked him a question and he touched the neck of his sweatshirt self-consciously. "Oh! Oh... I don't know. I guess so. Half the time I don't even realize, you know?"

He was suddenly pained for further explanation. "It's..." He paused, knowing there was no easy or simple way to finish the sentence, "for the flies. In my head..." He paused, checking her expression to see if she could follow. Though he didn't speak with much conviction, he seemed to take it very seriously.

"It makes them quiet down... So I can hear myself think. My head hurts a lot. The hood helps."

Calmness might have been in LuLu’s nature. Then again, maybe the frei was just keen on sensing when danger was present. Right now, it was a time for preparation. Spending hours cooped up on a bus with your nerves on end was going to do no one any good. Fear and worry could be saved for when threat was more apparent.

LuLu felt some pride as Basil inspected her work and seemed thoroughly pleased with her skill. She was no professional by any stretch of the imagination but it was enough to earn a look of shocked appreciation and that was enough for ear. Undeniably, LuLu was startled when Basil had thrust his one untidy palm into hers. She had nearly forgotten just how frigid his normal body temperature was. The rabbit could not help but shiver softly, much more accustomed to her own cozy heat. The fur on her ears fluffed as they stood on end. Before she started, she cupped Basil’s hand in her own and brought it up to her lips. The sigel puffed warm, moist breath into his lithe digits until they felt nice enough to handle. Then she began her task all over again, pinky finger first.

She mulled over Basil’s words with a neutral expression as she debated how to respond. Obviously, admitting to having ‘flies’ in your head was not a typical response. If Basil had taught her anything yet though it was that she would not get a typical answer from him. Maybe it all had something to do with his powers as a frei. True to her previous choices, LuLu decided not to inquire further. The subject seemed to bother hims a bit and the rabbit might not have liked the answer anyway. She nodded to him, “My ears hear a lot of things. I hear odd noises, too. Sometimes I wish I had a big hood or a hat.”

There was a certain awkwardness as she drew his hand so closely to her mouth, mainly because Basil didn't understand what the point of it was. If he didn't know any better, he might think she was trying to bite off one of his fingers. Instead, she did something a little more unexpected. She breathed on his skin, warm and wet. The kind of breath where if you closed your eyes, you'd think it was a friendly dog. More evidence of her mammal-ness. As if she were more warm-blooded than most.

Basil was like her photographic negative. More reptilian than most. His internal temperature was no warmer than his skin. He had heard a story once from Mickey-- one of a thousand of his hunting and camping stories that flowed when the alcohol did. Apparently in winter, when you gutted a deer, their insides would actually STEAM for a while. Like mist over a hotspring. Pure still-living heat.

Somehow that image always stuck with him. Made him think.

If you gutted Basil in the snow...?

Well.

The buffing continued. Despite a long and thoughtful pause, she seemed more-or-less satisfied with his answer, and he was grateful she didn't press him for more. Maybe she understood a little better than most. He could see she had a stomach and the impression of hips. She was older, more developed. She radiated a sense of power and confidence that he hoped to possess someday as well.

He was noticing lots of things about her.

Funny enough, she mentioned them at the very instant he gave her ears a closer look, and his eyed grew fractionally wider with a sort of wonderment. "You hear things too?" He sounded almost hopeful. Eager to know. His eyes slitted in a sly sort of way, "I hear everything." The word 'everything' had a special emphasis. Strong and somehow unnerving.

He heard absolutely everything...

With his free hand, he finally lowered his hood. Almost as if to reveal a pair of bobbing animal ears of his own. As if to say, 'look, we are the same!'

But instead there was only a mess of black hair. Coiling from his head in rebellious little semi-curls. Shiny and unwashed. What could be seen of his ears were not even pointed. No fur, no abnormalities. They were round and human. In fact, under the hood, there was almost nothing outrageous about his appearance at all. The eye-narrowing from before clearly said "reptile", but there were no scales. No forked tongue.

Take away the wings and slap a pair of legs on him, and you'd have yourself a strange young man with flies in his head and a bad nail-biting habit.

LuLu lilted her elegantly pointed chin to the left as she weighed the tone of the cobra’s words. While answering, she admitted her shortcoming, “Everything is a lot. I cannot hear that much, but I can hear more than most others.” She was eager to please just as Basil was eager to feel commonality with her. She hoped that answer would suffice.

The rabbit swiveled her ears consciously in different directions to demonstrate her modest talent. After a moment she giggled, “The bus driver is listening to opera and someone in the back is knitting.” She beamed at Basil satisfied with her deduction.

LuLu’s eyes fluttered wider as her acquaintance finally unveiled his face entirely. She was expecting something marvelous or spectacular, like a grand pair or ears or winding horns. However, she was taken aback when everything appeared…. normal. That was certainly not a word she had associated with Basil yet. Acting on impulse, the sigel could not help but reach out a hand to prod one of his ears curiously. Her finger traced its outer shell cautiously and was careful to avoid brushing his greasy hair. She was confused at how something so simple and human was capable of such an amazing accomplishment.

If he was disappointed by her clarification, he didn't show it. Maybe she didn't hear "everything", but it wasn't as though she were totally over-inflating herself. She proved it with two fine examples, and Basil could verify.

It was true, the bus driver WAS listening to a choppy classical station on the radio, and that he had it turned down for own private listening. And yes, someone in the back WAS knitting, but if Genie were to strain her ears over the sparse conversations and road-noise, she'd probably hear the click-clack of the needles too. Just faintly. These were sounds you would have had to be LOOKING for to hear, but Lulu could hear them without having to give it much thought or focus.

Maybe that was the important difference. Lulu had ears built for HEARING. For sensing danger not only behind her, but also from above, below, and in all directions in-between.

But Basil had a body built for SENSING. He had ears that heard heartbeats and footsteps through the walls. He could hear blood being squeezed through a body, and stomachs grinding food. He heard a thousand private conversations every day, and better yet, had the skills to recreate them. He read the tiniest disturbances in the air like a blind person reads braille. He could FEEL airplanes roaring through the sky, and vehicles on the road. When he was younger, he even picked up the occasional radio-station, but luckily he found a way to fix that...

He twitched as Lulu brushed his ear. It tickled. Sent a thrill racing down his neck. He smiled to hold in a laugh. Her expression was perplexed, maybe a little disbelieving, and he patiently tolerated the touch.

Of course, to examine his ears, she had needed to stop filing for a moment. She held Basil's right hand loosely in her left, while the other brushed his ear, the file fastened between her middle and ring fingers. When she was finished, she began to draw her hand away, the file glinting in the sunlight inches from his face. It was a total fluke. The tiniest flick of her wrist. The clouds parting from the sun. For that moment, Basil was backlit, silhouetted in a glaring white halo, his face and body dark. Like a shadow puppet on a white wall. He blinked once, violently, as the light caught the metal file, his eyes narrowing again. Tighter and tighter. Like he'd been hit in the head with a baseball bat. Completely stunned. For half a moment---just a moment, he actually stopped breathing. He didn't HOLD his breath. He just... stopped. Tense and paralyzed. Dust motes swirling around him like a vision.

What happened next was so sudden. So flawless.

His face changed. It wasn't a dramatic all-over transformation, like a werewolf in a full moon. It was much subtler. The combined and unsettling effect of all the minutiae of Basil-- the faces he made, the words he used, the composite of his body language-- SHIFTING at once. Simultaneously.

His hand, formerly limp and harmless, seemed to explode like a trap-door spider. It turned over, snatching her by the wrist with strangling, clutching fingers. Squeezing like a python. His face was motionless, but something--a vein or tendon--corded tightly in his neck. A tense, restless, HATEFUL energy radiated from him like the steam of the gutted deer in winter. He spoke in a voice reminiscent of Basil's, but silkier. Calmer. Free of any stammers or pauses. He spoke very softly, very privately.

"...Don't believe me?" He squeezed tighter, pulling her closer to him across the aisle with impossible strength. A drop of spittle flew from his mouth as he hissed through his teeth, "...In approximately two-hundred feet, this bus is going to hit a pothole." His voice whispered softer, and softer, at a volume you had to strain to hear, "I know this, because the car in the other lane just hit it. I sensed it."

Like ripples in a pond.

Or vibrations through a spiderweb...

His face paled with a quiet, crackling, palpable rage. "Why don't you laugh at THAT..."

His jaw was clenched so tight you'd think his teeth would shatter apart. If he didn't break Lulu's wrist first... He squeezed even tighter before he suddenly released. The change happened again, but more forcefully. Like dropping an enormous weight. It was startling. To see that much hatred, that much PASSION just... vanish. Snuffed out like a candle. Replaced by Basil's mild and unintelligent expression. His eyes were saucer-like. He stared into Lulu's face like a bathroom mirror, his eyes so frantic they seemed to shiver. He hastily pulled up his sleeve and snapped something on his wrist. A rubber band?

No... A girl's hair-tie.

He snapped the elastic several times in a row, painfully and sharply, his face clenched into something like fear, or frustration, maybe even anger, but not for her. He made a red-pink mark on his wrist. He was snapping it by the metal aglet, right on his tendons. When he seemed satisifed, he muttered something like an apology and lifted his hood. He turned, facing forward in his seat.

"I'm... God... I'm SO sorry." He put his forehead to the seat, "You should just... I..."

There was a loud banging sound. A metal rattle. The squeak of the suspension. The front of the bus jolted, then the back, a pothole disappearing in the rearview. Basil made a shivery sort of sound. A weepy breath. "Don't talk to me." He rasped.

It happened so swiftly that LuLu never could have seen Basil’s transformation coming. The event passed in the blink of an eye possibly too fast for her to even fully acknowledge it had ever happened. Basil’s off kilter words hung in the air and left her with an uneasy feeling all over, like she had been defiled somehow. Red, swollen halfmoons were dug into her wrist, she was thankful she had the forethought to file his nails. Her other hand was clenched tight at her side. It was balled into a strong fist and ready to strike in the off chance the frei had not eased his hold.

However, Basil had. This confused LuLu even more. He appeared just as he had before only more flustered. The rabbit did not know how to feel. Was she at fault? Had something short circuited in Basil? The sigel felt herself withdrawing from the frei. Her mission of kindness was terminated and her instincts of self-preservation where screaming at her to get away from him.

LuLu tucked herself back into her seat without a word. As they rolled over the pothole, LuLu’s body jostled forward. She felt a shiver run down her spine and she clutched her blanket closer. She did not even dare look back over at Basil for the rest of the trip.