Welcome to Gaia! ::

Slender fingers tapped against the polished oak of the dining table.

"Elena.." her brother's voice was exasperated, as expected. "You can't go on like this; you need to do something, and we both know it. You're simply delaying the inevitable."

"The inevitable, Ralph?" there was a snappishness about her, quite unusual for the young woman. Or perhaps, not so young any more - but is it not youth of the mind that matters most?

"Sorry, I.." She sighed, running a hand through her greying hair. "Sorry. You didn't deserve that - I'm just frustrated, that's all."

"We all are; Evan is nearly ready to march into their lawyer's office and threaten him into submission, you know." This was said with a certain amount of amusement; the thought of his sweet, even-tempered life-partner threatening anyone was fairly ludicrous. But Evan had a soft spot for Elena, Ralph's younger sister, and his protective streak was coming out full-time with the current situation.

Both Ralph and Elena had been born to the wealthy Lacroix family, who owned several businesses and had once, at their peak, been a part of the Gaian elite. Unfortunately, whatever titles they had held had been gambled away, but this had not stopped the Lacroix from considering themselves the best of the very best.

And despite the many delinquents the Lacroix line seemed to produce, they did quite well for themselves. Never regaining their former titles, they looked forwards, and expanded their business empire. And an empire it was; Elena and her brother had grown up in luxury, surrounded by nannies, teachers and maids.

They were the last of the main line, and besides them and some distant cousins, all of the family was either old or dead. As such, Ralph had been poised to inherit it all.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, he'd met the love of his life at age 19, and upon coming out as gay to his family, had lost his rights to inheritance. Their father, the late Henry Lacroix, had been more than just a touch homophobic, and had renounced all ties with his son upon hearing that Ralph was homosexual.

Which'd left Elena. Or rather, it hadn't, because Elena happened to be barren: the Lacroix line had some very specific, very old-minded ideas about inheritance, and one of them happened to be that a woman over the age of 40 with no children would have to give up her rights to the family fortune. She might adopt, but the children would not be in line to inherit, and wouldn't count. She'd still have to give everything up.

George, an old friend of Elena's from college, had taken on her case and had been trying for months to find a loophole in the contract.

They'd had no luck.

<< Solo Entry >>

Iselda hadn't been out of her cabbage for much more than a few days before Elena had started dragging her everywhere; apparently she was something of a curiosity in the finer circles, and everyone and their dog wanted to take a look at her.

But when it came right down to it, that was all they wanted to do. Look and marvel at how pretty, how nice and well-behaved and completely un-normal she was - she was an anomaly, something beautiful and delicate to look at, but not talk or play with.

And there was only so much time Elena could dedicate to her daughter, no matter how much she wished she had more: the business didn't run itself, and care of Iselda had quickly been left to the maids of the household, who all seemed wary of the young child that never cried and whose smiles seemed to hold a tint of something unknown.

Frankly, they gossiped to each other, there's something off about her. Did you hear, Miss Lacaroix got her from a vegetable..?

The one that had spent the most time with Iselda so far had been Anna, Elena's personal assistant who usually accompanied her on trips, but had been confined to the house to oversee Iselda's care the last couple of days.

And Anna.. Anna had tried her best to be nice to the young girl, but on some level she couldn't help but agree with the tittering maids and the rest of the staff: there was definitely something off, something not entirely right.

And Anna knew what it was. There was something in her smiles, even in her eyes, blue and pretty as a posie - something hidden, something that seemed malicious on some hidden level.

Which was stupid, because honestly, so far Iselda hadn't displayed a bad bone in her body. She had been nice and charming and smiled sweetly (or tried to, at least) at everyone and everything.
She was quiet, well-behaved, not fussy or ill-behaved in any way. She'd absorbed everything around her like a sponge and had even started to form words and incomplete sentences - obviously she was as smart as the brochure from the lab that'd made her had said she would be.

"'na?" came an inquisitive voice to her left, and Anna, who had been off in a world of her own, couldn't help but give a start. Oh. It was only Iselda.

"Yes sweetie?" Her smile was mechanic as she put a calming hand on her chest to calm her racing heart. What a scare! Honestly, she should be paying more attention.

"Toil-et." The word was carefully pronounced, just as she'd been taught by the young woman next to her. 'Potty' was not a word used in polite society, and Elena had left strict instructions that her daughter be taught proper language skills and politesse.

"Oh! Of course, just a minute." Anna scrambled to get the papers she'd been working on before getting caught in her own thoughts into some sort of order and tried to avoid looking at the angelic face next to her.

She was sweet. She was perfect. She was creepy as all hell.

<>

It had been bothering her for days.

Elena had, like all citizens of Gaia, heard of children with extra-ordinary powers. God-like in some cases, even. But really, that such a thing should happen happen to her.. She bit her lip, before catching herself.

This was-- this was--

Unsettling, that was the word. Unsettling. After the party at the Dawsons', bless their common little hearts, and the meeting with that Wesley man and his daughter, well, she'd been off kilter. Thrown off her game, so to speak.

It was silly, really.

Wasn't it? No, mustn't think like that! Silly, yes, terribly silly..

Still, all the same, Elena contemplated. Has your house no windows? It had, certainly; she'd double-checked that same night, after letting the servants put Iselda to bed and pretending to do the same herself.

But there was something.. deeper about the statement. She couldn't shake off the feeling that, somehow, perhaps this 'Magdelen' child (that Anna had reported Iselda would not stop talking about; really, one of these days she would take her daughter out to meet proper people) was one of these prophetic children. Was it a sign? A prophecy? Had the girl somehow seen into her future, or perhaps into her very soul, and seen a distinct lack of windows?

It was possible. Far, far too possible.

Iselda had not displayed anything interesting, or at least not as far as Elena was aware; there had been some tittering from the maids, but really, when were there not? They were such silly little creatures, most more hare-brained than not! Certainly, Anna had seemed a bit withdrawn, if that was the right word to use, but her assistant had been adamant that nothing was going on, and well, Elena did trust her. Even if the girl seemed to be forgetting to get her sleep these days - really, raccoon eyes? Elena would have thought better of a woman with such an upstanding pedigree.

No, no, her own daughter was as normal as could be. The perfect child. Perfect. At least until this Magdelen girl had come along and ruined her and given Elena countless sleepless nights, pondering her ominous words.

The brochure from that quaint little lab had said that some of the children might have been special, and, well, no child would have said such things by itself. Not without some sort of higher interference! Would they?

Elena caught herself biting her lip again and nearly swore out loud in frustration.

reserved for solo

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