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 Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 4:16 pm
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Whispers Through Wood
A Private RP between:
Eirdirsceol and Rivener
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Location: Delaran Home
Time: Early Morning
Weather: Chill Before the Rain
Status: Complete
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 4:39 pm
Usually every morning, before Aphismet even stumbled down the stairs in his pajama pants, Eiry was up and about, passing silently through the walls with an ear to ear grin on his face. He would pass through every one's rooms and watch them in the last moments of their sleep. Observe how they breathed so evenly, watch the delicate movements of their eyes beneath their lids, and look at the construction of their hands where they laid curled up and gentle...But not now.
Now, the walls lay un-tickled and un-phased by Eiry's passage. The sleepers went unwatched over and the air was still.
Since that fateful day in the backyard near the marshlands, with his hands covered in mud and his red eyes wide, Eiry couldn't stop thinking about the jar. He couldn't stop thinking, rethinking, recalculating, reevaluating...it drove him suddenly sour, suddenly melancholy. Like a ghost, Eiry passed unnoticed to the one place he felt he could think: the basement.
He knew that no one knew about the basement yet, filled with it's unnoticed treasures and forgotten furniture. There were no entrances, no stairs, no passages that led down there. Eiry could think here. Eiry could wonder.
So it was there that Eirdirsceol spent most of the day, not answering to the call of his name. Just wondering, staring at the jar that was so frighteningly familiar.
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 4:54 pm
Rivener was alone by the time evening began. Aphi had taken Isi to work, today was some kind of "bring your family to work" day. The Scorpion's short bout of jealousy had been quiet and sullen, Rivener pouting in his room all day and giving Aphismet the cold shoulder as a result. He couldn't bring himself to be as violently jealous as before, for fear of harming someone again. But Riv had still been too proud to just tell Aphi that HE wanted to go to the family day.
So now that he was alone in the house, Rivener felt very lonely. He knew that at least one person would give him hugs and unconditional love, so the Scorpion now set about looking for this person. "EIRY?" He called, wandering first through the attic, then moving down to the second floor, then to the first floor, calling as he went. Odd, the Wispy Frei wasn't anywhere? Come to think of it, Eiry had been acting odd lately, no pranks, no mischievous grins...
"EIRY? Where are you?" Riv called as he passed through a hallway near the living room, wandering close to a vent that, unknown to anyone, opened to the basement beneath.
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 6:11 pm
Shocked from his thoughtful reveries by the sound of his brother's voice, Eiry turned his red eyes to the ceiling of the basement in wonder. When before, he might've been curious, Eiry was now simply...not. No perk of his pointed ears, no faster half-formed heart beat. He simply looked to the ceiling. He had half the mind to let the call go unanswered, but there was a part of him that wanted something. He wasn't sure what, but he wanted something.
Floating up to the ceiling, the smeared jar still tucked carefully in his arm like his favorite stuffed animal, Eiry put his intangible hand through the vent. His soft creepy voice sounded like the air conditioning system when he answered in a whisper, "Riv..."
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 6:30 pm
Rivener startled, like when the ghosts suddenly snuck up on him in attic. His red eyes snapped down to see a pale hand reaching up through some strange vent in the ground, and it took only a moment to recognize it as Eiry's hand. Rivener blinked and floated down until he was lying on his elbows on the ground, reaching out and passing his fingers through Eiry's intangible ones.
"Eiry? What are you doing in the floor? Come on up, why are you hiding?" Riv tilted his head, truly confused. "A-are you alright?" For a moment the thought crossed Riv's mind that perhaps the younger frei was caught down there???
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 7:32 pm
As soon as Eiry saw Rivener's hands pass through his own, Eiry retreated back into the air vent. He could see Rivener through the cracks in the air vent, looking up at him from the dark silver shadows through the bright slits in the vents. It was...kind of nice...to see Rivener trying to peek through at him. But Eiry was still too heavy with thought to feel anything other than that.
He hadn't told anyone yet, not even Rivener, about his discovery in the marsh. He didn't know what to say if he had told them. It couldn't be put into words properly, even with Eiry's funky vocabulary that was meant to display more emotion than conversation. What could he say? "I found what I think is to be my dead body in the marsh and now I don't know what anything is anymore?" Those words weren't enough. They weren't expressive enough to convey what Eiry was feeling.
He held his jar tighter to his chest and tried to muster up some sounds to answer Rivener's question.
"...Unh Unh..."
It was meant to be a reply to all of his brother's questions.
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 7:38 pm
Rivener frowned, his chest feeling like it was blossoming with concern. Eiry's lack of a reply was worrisome, and when the words finally did come, it was nothing like how the minty Frei usually spoke. Rivener brought a hand to the grate of the vent and clutched his fingers in the small cracks, nails slipping through but nothing else. "Eiry?!" Riv said, worried. "Eiry, what's wrong? You're scaring me! Let me go down there, or you come up here, I want to see you! Come on!"
Couple with Rivener's earlier bout of jealousy, this sudden concern with Eiry left the Raevan feeling powerless and unwanted. All he could think of was that hugs would solve everything. Eiry and he would both feel better if they could have a good long hug. "Please come up, let me hug you for a while!"
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 7:53 pm
Instead of trying to explain everything to his brother or try and choke up enough words to explain that there were no ways down into the basement, Eiry lifted himself up gently so that he could peek above the air vent. He only floated up enough to show his nose and that was it. He hoped that seeing his red eyes, eyes that were more red from emotion, would be enough to explain to his brother what he was feeling.
The trembling might help convey it too.
Eiry's hair was unkempt instead of brushed, his pointed ears were sagging and he was far more pale than usual. It was clear that he hadn't been eating. Eiry was too busy thinking, thinking, thinking, connecting thoughts and sewing possibilities together, to be concerned with the state of his health.
"...mmh..." Eiry muttered.
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 8:00 pm
Rivener blinked and actually recoiled in surprise when he saw Eiry's face pop up half-way through the grate. He looked... unhealthy. To say the least. Rivener's own red eyes glazed over with instant heart-wrenching worry and he leaned closer, until he leaned on his hands and his forehead could almost touch Eiry's ghostly one. Red eyes met red eyes at very close distance and the Scorpion whispered like they were talking secrets.
"Eiry... Eiry, what's wrong? I want to help, you have to tell me... You look hungry, do you want me to bring you something? The plants in the garden are looking all yummy-yellow and dry..."
This was beyond frustrating. Riv couldn't even pet his brother's hair or anything. He could only prod and talk and try to somehow convince Eiry to share his problem. Riv's heart pounded against his ribcage forcefully.
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Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 11:02 pm
Eiry didn't move away when Rivener leaned down closer. He simply stayed where he was, peeking out over the floorboards, intangible and untouchable. His tired eyes stared back into Rivener's, trying to communicate what he had found, what he was thinking over, mulling over. He was okay with their close proximity, but he didn't make himself tangible in order to feel it. It he went tangible here, he'd be sliced in half by the floor. And that meant...
Eiry's red eyes watered over at the thought and his shudders increased.
Instead of trying to explain, Eiry simply gave another soft, "Mnh," before he pulled up his arms and held up his precious jar. Rivener could see within the smeared glass, see what had disturbed Eiry so much. The pale body within laid in a crumbled heap, it's paper wings and two pairs of arms twisted about it's covered head. It was the pale husk of a will-o-wisp. Just looking at it, it bore an uncanny resemblance to Eiry in some hidden way.
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Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 7:01 pm
Rivener frantically went over what he'd just said, trying to figure out what he'd spoken that had made Eiry's eyes well up like that. Riv's own eyes were threatening to well up and he frowned away the tears, frustrated at his own powerlessness. Rivener had always thought of himself as strong and powerful and able to defend people, but here he was about as useful as wallpaper while Eiry was suffering. "Eiry-"
Rivener's words were interrupted as the minty frei held up a jar through the floor. Smudgy and dirty and nearly impossible to see through, the glass jar seemed very important to the younger Frei. Riv narrowed his eyes to peer into the container. With a gasp, Riv pulled away when he finally spotted the withered carcass inside. "Wh-what is that?" The Scorpion asked, appalled for some reason, as though he'd seen something he was never meant to see. He couldn't really understand why this was disturbing him so much. "What is in there?"
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Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 11:09 am
The minty frei flinched in response to Rivener's gasp of surprise. He pulled the jar closer to him instinctively, watching him carefully as if Rivener had the capability to break his precious jar. But when moments passed by, Eiry slowly subsided back into being an extremely worried and troubled frei, cradling his precious jar close.
For a split second, Eiry almost opened his mouth and spoke with Rivener, but he couldn't even come up with any sound. He struggled a little, trying to dig up some sort of word that would answer Rivener's question, but all he could muster was a small, "Mmph." To help better explain himself, Eiry looked down at the jar and then pointed back at himself. Perhaps that would tell Rivener the identity of the limp form within his firefly jar.
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Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 3:24 pm
Rivener watched Eiry struggle to form words with growing concern. There was a fluttering in the Scorpion's stomach as mild panic took over. Was Eiry unable to speak because he was actually too weak? Or was it some deep trauma? Should Riv insist that the Frei eat something? Before the dark Raevan could come to some decision, Eiry instead pointed to the jar and then to himself. Riv frowned. "...You?" he said quietly, furrowing his brows in sympathy. "...Th-that's you? What you used to be? H-how do you know for sure?"
Aphismet had long ago sat Rivener down and explained how Riv was made. The chef hadn't realized it might be disturbing to reveal to a young being that he was created with the soul of something else, but Rivener had taken it all in stride. He knew he used to be a scorpion and a rock of night sky. It wouldn't bother him much (he thought) to suddenly see the dead arachnid body, but... No one had ever told Eiry, had they? How he was made? And now to find the pathetic little body trapped in a jar...
"I'm really sorry, Eiry," Riv sighed, trying to pat the wispy green hair and only sliding fingers through air. "It's alright to be sad, but don't let it take over like this... I used to be something else too, you know. We probably all did. ...If you want to, we can give it a nice, proper funeral? Would that help?" Riv felt a little better now that he knew what the problem was, but his heart still ached for his poor little brother.
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Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 10:50 am
As Eiry displayed the cause of his concern, the cause of his deep thinking, he kept his red eyes on the jar, transfixed once more by the lifeless sight of what he used to be. It's delicate wings were bent, not at all what they used to be. What did they used to be? What was Eiry like before he was snatched in a glass jar? How did he fly? How did he learn? How did he die? How did it feel like? Eiry's frown deepened and he glanced up, almost frightened, by Rivener's question.
"...Th-that's you? What you used to be? H-how do you know for sure?"
How did Eiry know for sure? He just knew that there were this feeling, this undeniable feeling that welled up in his throat and made his skin prickly. Locking his eyes with Rivener, Eiry took up a hand and pressed it to his chest, the gesture he usually did whenever he piped the word "Heartpromise". It was his heart, he knew it in his heart. This was him.
When Rivener pat the hair of the ethereal little brother, Eiry gave a sniff. How else could he handle this, this was so frightening to him. He didn't understand it all and it was driving him mad. Then Rivener said...
...If you want to, we can give it a nice, proper funeral? Would that help?
Jerking the jar back into his arms, hugging it protectively underneath his chin, Eiry gave a short and loud, "NO!"
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Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 7:42 pm
Rivener startled at Eiry's violent reaction, cradling the jar under his chin and actually speaking a word, albeit a short one. Red eyes locked on red eyes and Rivener tightened his lips into a line. "Why not? What's wrong? You're changing, Eiry, it's okay!"
Perhaps that was the whole reason Rivener wasn't upset by this entire concept; scorpions change skins, like snakes and lizards... Rivener had shed his old body for his new one, but he was still the same, in essence. It was part of his whole, now. How could he get Eiry to see the same thing?
The dark frei settled back down, sighing. "Eiry, it's just your shell. You outgrew it. Like a hermit crab. You're still Eiry, no one else... And you're still alive..." Riv was weary of saying something else that would be wrong, but he could only try to comfort Eiry the way that made sense to the Scorpion's mind.
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