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The ride up the elevator to the topmost floor of the building was stressful. Aphismet kept fussing with his clothes, straightening his tie. He hardly EVER wore a tie, but once he'd heard where Ethan lived he'd decided this was probably something they should dress up for. When Aphi's fingers weren't busy tugging on his suit or tie, they were picking at Rivener's hair to put it in place, or straightening Isikoro's sleeves, or petting at Eiry's wild locks in an attempt to get them to behave properly.

"Jeez, Aph, relax!" Riv finally snapped, frowning in annoyance at the white-haired chef. "Holy hell, he didn't invite us over for a Tax Audit or a Legal Proceeding, it's just DINNER." Ruffling his wings, Riv crossed his arms and set his eyes up to watch the numbers change on the floor indicator. 34, 35, 36...

"Y-yeah, but this is Ethan Blake's house! Don't you read the papers, Riv? He's a bigshot, an important person, you can't just show up at his home in jeans and a t-shirt!" Frantic, Aphi turned to Isi and began toying with the zipper to the boy's pilot jacket, wondering if it looked best up or down or in the middle?

"Who cares about all that. He invited us cause we're all part of the Lab, and think of it this way: he probably thinks YOU TWO are the bigshots cause you've had me and Eiry around much longer than he's had Vyn. So calm down. Everything's gonna be fine. Leave poor Isi alone." Riv could tell the younger Delaran was about ready to bat Aphi away with his crutches.

Ding! went the elevator doors, heralding their arrival to the top penthouse, finally. All four emerged from the elevator and into the small lobby that boasted only one door. Rivener confidently floated up to it and pressed the doorbell, smiling at Aphi over his shoulder. "It's okay, man. Calm down."

Aphismet was near hyperventilating.

The chime of the elevator signalled that the guests had arrived and Ethan’s face broke into a confident smile, his body language shifting into the stance of a well experienced host. Vyn on the other hand fell back into old habits, drawing her arms almost protectively around her and didn’t drift over to the doorway to greet them... She did however keep her eyes trained on the entrance, a faint smile lingering on her lips. There was nothing to be fretting about, so why withdraw back into her tentative shell? It would only result in Ethan being disappointed in her and pushing even harder to get her to become more sociable and the prospect of further forced conversations from the businessman really did make her grimace.

However, not even the confident Ethan was totally prepared for what happened next. Before the door to the room could be opened to reveal the family surely waiting to be let in, a spectral figure glided effortlessly through the wall. Vyn’s black eyes were wide with shock as Thorn instantly leapt off the sofa, scrabbling across the carpet to yap and snort with profuse anger at the invader. However, unlike the maids and cleaning staff that the dog had taken a liking to harassing, this person didn’t have feet... Instead an ethereal ribbon was all that he could jump at – helplessly passing through the intangible raevan.

"EIRDIRSCEOL!"

Vyn heard the hiss come from the open door and instantly slotted the new raevan with his name. So this was Rivener’s brother? She examined him with interest.

He was garbed in a crimson vest with generously baggy sleeves. She wasn’t sure what to make of these objects of clothing, it certainly wasn’t similar to any fashion that she’d seen whilst out and about... His hair was wild and unkempt, much like her own locks when unrestrained, yet unlike the rose, his hair was minty green rather than rich red. Overall, Vyn was a little disheartened. Unlike Rivener, she could spy very little to relate to. However, she soon recovered from her shock and observatory stare to float forwards to prevent her pet from bothering him... Best keep true to her desire to be sociable.

“H-hello... You surprised him.” She explained, scooping up the pug and attempting an apologetic smile.

Ethan was also taken aback by the entrance of the plant raevan he had pondered about so much. Like his charge he was slightly disheartened that there wasn’t a striking resemblance between them. But then again, perhaps his hopes had been a little too high. All he knew was that the boy had plants at his roots. It’d been almost foolish of him to hope that Eiry was made from something as close to Vyn as Rivener was – two ‘brothers’ for her would’ve been too good to be true.

Reconstructing his host’s face he beamed at the remaining Delerans outside his door. “Welcome, Aphismet, Rivener.” He gestured for them to enter before examining the remaining Deleran. “And you must be Isikoro? A pleasure to meet you! Your boy is the one who just entered via my walls I assume?” Ethan laughed, extending a hand in greeting.

Finding no where to hide as he entered the estate, Eiry simply gave a twirl and a clumsy bow (for bows were hard to do when there was no lower body to bend with). The place was nice, almost too nice for Eiry's tastes. Things were so clean, so orderly that Eiry felt an itch to put something out of order or leave a couple noticeable finger smears on the glass tanks. It wasn't that he thought it was too prestigious or anything, it was that this level of cleanliness made it look as if no one actually lived there. There was no life to a place so clean.

He let the momentary dissatisfaction slip from his chest, and glanced over his shoulder as the door was opened for the rest of his family. His attention was quickly snagged, for a beautiful raevan, gentle as she was entrancing, approached Eiry, leaning down before him as she scooped something from his feet. Eiry followed her movements and found, to his surprise, that there was a little lumpy ball of short hair and teeth batting furiously at his intangible ribbon. He would have hardly noticed if it weren't for the ear-piecing yapping.

Holding a hand to his pointed ear and grimacing at the noise his ears so easily picked up, Eiry gave a smile to the dark female frei and the writhing ball of vanilla in her arms, "Surprised him? You know," he said jokingly, "I could scare him too." And with that he made a quick scary face at the pug, long enough to give a jump, but it quickly evaporated into friendly laughter. He leaned back and ran his fingers through his untamed locks, letting his shoulders quiver with glee, "Hello! My big brother has told me of you. You are Vyn. Vyn...A name too small to encapsulate such a beauty as yours."

Shakespeare.

"And I am named Eirdirsceol, though most call me Eiry. It's a wondrous pleasure, indeed, to meet you, with eyes lovely enough to make one's heart bleed!"

More Shakespeare.

Rivener, by that time, had been long standing there, rebuking him. Eiry turned to him, finally melting out of his state of intangibility with his face full of glee. He waltzed over to him with a flourish and leaned his back against his brother's chest and torso, craning his head teasingly over his brother's shoulder and playing with his brother's chin, "Brother mine!" he crooned, "I only wished to bid them a surprise! There's no harm in that. Besides," he fell through Rivener at that point and appeared on the other side of him, folding his arms on the sigel's shoulders and laying his head against Rivener's, "Manners are all in wordspeak, not in actionsdo. Those are simply rituals, formalities, so-to-speak, and only there. Words are the vessels, with which I would give my honors."

...That might be Poe.

Isi watched helplessly as the door opened. He hoped to anything holy that Eiry didn't just go in there and accidentally knock over some ridiculously expensive vase imported from someplace on the other side of the planet. But instead of hearing a ten thousand dollar crash, he only heard the voice of a older entrepreneur jovially greet him from within the door.

Thank god, he was laughing. He wasn't frowning.

Looking up, Isi found himself face to face with a rather well aged man, placing out a large firm hand before him in kind greeting. The boy slapped on a kind face and clumsily retracted his arm from his forearm crutch, placed it in his other hand, and leaned forward to accept the man's genial handshake.

"Yeah," he said in response to the accusation about his ward, shaking Ethan's hand with a strong grip of his own, "That one's mine. His name is Eirdirsceol, or just Eiry for short. I'm sorry that he burst in on you like that, he's just...too enthusiastic for his own good. I'm Isikoro Etul Delaran. I'm glad to finally meet you, sir."

As he finally released the strong handed shake, Isi fumbled to juggle his crutch to the appropriate arm, attach himself back in, and finally follow after Aphismet into the expensive flat. As he walked in, blinded by the sheer neatness and taste of the home, Isi felt himself smile in appreciation. While he felt kind of intimidated by this man's power and wealth, Isi also looked kindly on his effort to look nice. From the times where he was adopted underneath Old Massi, cleanliness was something rarely achieved, but often sought, because Isi would toil hours during the day to clean up the house as best he could just before Old Massi would run through it with silly string and whipped cream. Isi gave a nod to Ethan, meant to compliment him on the state of his home and choice of decor.

"Wow," Isi said lamely, somewhat trailing along after Aphismet. He felt an unconscious need, all of a sudden, to be near his adopted brother now that the strength anger had given him had wisped away, "This is a great place you've got, sir."

Aphismet watched the tank closely as he listened to the other two talk, introduce themselves, get on what seemed to be good terms. Ethan hadn't mentioned Isi's disability, and Isi hadn't barked anything grumpy; so far so good. The chef straightened and glanced over at the next fishtank. "I DO like them," Aphismet admitted as he took Ethan's offer, moving to the next tank and slowly making his way towards the dining room. VERY slowly. "It brings a nice burst of sudden color, and it's so lively! What a great idea to put these in the walls! Like moving paintings!"

The white-haired man cleared his throat, tugging at the edge of his coat yet again. He felt so out of place here. For the major part of his life Aphi lived in an orphanage and then a few shitty apartments and then an old dilapidated house... He could only DREAM of ever earning enough to live in a place like this. All his savings went towards planning for the other three's futures, in case any of them wanted to go to school, or their house burned down and they needed a new one, or the car ran into troubles, or a million other things. Ethan just... SWAM in money. H-how did he get to be this rich? It wasn't something Aphismet would ask, but he kept his eyes peeled for any kind of hint. A framed diploma, a plaque, anything that would tell him exactly how this savvy businessman had started out, and how he'd managed to get so far so fast. The chef simply couldn't understand how someone would be able to get here in the span of one lifetime.

"Isi's right, it really is a wonderful place you've got. I h-hope we aren't late or anything," Aphismet added, spotting the clock here was slightly ahead of his own watch. He'd made it to the edge of the dining room, pausing there at the last fishtank, admiring the blue fish inside.

Rivener frowned tolerantly at everything Eiry was doing, cuddling up to him and floating through him, nuzzling his head in the next instant, all while talking in that strange way of his and trying to make Rivener recant his admonishing of earlier. The Scorpion raised an eyebrow, peering over his shoulder at the minty Frei. "Manners are not just in words, Eiry. You know better. It's just common courtesy not to go barging into someone else's house uninvited; hell, doing that is even considered illegal. So, don't do that again please?"

At least Vyn didn't seem upset. She mentioned her puppy was a gift from Pasha, and Rivener blinked as he paused in mid-reach to scritch the thing's ears. "Really, a gift? How kind of her." For a moment Rivener's old dislike of the songstress flared and he wondered if she was only trying to buy herself a friend with that gift, but the Sigel quickly shook that idea out of his head. Melisande wasn't a bad person. She was kind and sweet and it was NOT an act, contrary to what Riv had first thought. Ridding himself of these thoughts so as not to ruin his evening with too much pondering, Riv instead smiled at Vyn and focused on answering the other question.

"I'm very good, Vyn, thank you. Spring is here, there's lots of nice growing things to take pictures of in the park now. How about you, how are you?" Rivener also didn't purposefully include Eiry, knowing that the minty one would speak up in a friendly manner as always. That was the nice thing about Eiry: his unflinching friendliness.

Vyn noticed the momentary hesitation of Rivener at the mention of her newest raevan acquaintance and also how he seemed to choose his words carefully, as if restraining his surface thoughts regarding the generous blond raevan. The rose’s brows twitched into a minute frown, pondering why Rivener was acting peculiar after she’d brought up Melisande. However, the scorpion’s bizarre air quickly dissipated as he responded to her querying to how he had been recently. “I'm very good, Vyn, thank you. Spring is here, there's lots of nice growing things to take pictures of in the park now. How about you, how are you?" She also lightened. Just like Rivener the rose frei had been relishing the fresh new growth that spring had breathed into the world. Not only did she feel as though her actual body was being given a boost as the dire chill of winter faded but she was becoming less withdrawn socially too... A rose gently blooming as the seasons changed. Just the other day Ethan had praised her for quite happily sustaining a conversation with him without headphones rammed in her ears or trailing off mid-sentence into sullen silence. “I am well thank you Rivener.” However, she recalled that the last time they had spoken she hadn’t been so well off... In fact it had been just after the chaotic concert that had left her batter, blackened and terribly shaken up. She raised a hand to touch her perfectly recovered face, absentmindedly adding, “No longer bruised or hurt.”

Just as she answered Rivener Vyn felt the furry bundle in her arms vibrate as Thorn growled yet again at Eiry, who had effortlessly passed through his brother to float in his own space but still remained near enough to Vyn to be able to tease the pug with a mischievous waggling finger. The crooning of the green haired raevan certainly brought amusement to Vyn. Would he ever leave her poor pet alone and run out of mischief? She felt a little guilty for allowing him to tease her pet in such a way, but there was no harm being done and she allowed her normally terse lips to peel into a smile as she patted the raised hackles of her dog –half attempting to settle him despite the other raevan’s baiting. However, when Eiry mimicked Thorn’s ugly wrinkled expression something quite unexpected happened. A laugh escaped her. Albeit a rather strangled chuckle; partly because of how unaccustomed the raevan’s throat was to such an occurrence, but also because Thorn had made another snap at Eiry and the shadow had to restrain him. None the less, it was most definitely a laugh.

Her mirth at his face pulling remained clearly evident in her voice as she stifled another chuckle at his funny smooched face. “You look... so... silly.” She turned to smile at Rivener. “Your brother is very comical. You never said!”

Nodding as Isikoro explained Eiry's peculiar speech style Ethan became further intrigued by the poetry loving frei. Again recalling the different performances he had seen - Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Othello were the performances he could recall most clearly - he posed a question, "Has he seen any Shakespeare performed live?" He glanced over to the raevan in question as he spoke and was astonished to see the trio floating in the centre of the room, Eiry pulling a face at the pup and Vyn laughing. Inside his chest there was a feeling similar to tensing and relaxing at the same time. They seemed to be getting on well and it was a relief - this evening was already becoming a success in his opinion.

Aphismet on the other hand seemed to be sliding towards a nervous wreck, fretting about their arrival and attracting wary glances from Isikoro. "No, perfect time keeping." Ethan assured, hoping to sooth the other man's nerves slightly. He glanced at his watch and beamed. The chef had given him a rough estimation of when to expect the first course to be ready and it was around the correct time now. "In fact, I would think that dinner should be ready soon... Would you care to move into the dining room?" He glanced again at the floating company before asking Isikoro and Aphismet; "Have young Eiridisol and Rivener eaten? If not, they're more than welcome to eat with us. There's a great view out of the window for Rivener to see the night sky and.." He paused apologetically grimacing at Isikoro, I'm unaware of Eiry's feeding requirements. I might be able to arrange something though - depending on what he needs."

Isi raised a brow at Ethan as the financially secure man casually suggested taking Eiry to see Shakespeare. They haven't thought of that before. Quite honestly, Isi didn't know that there was Shakespeare performances nearby, but that could easily be blamed on his limited interaction with the world outside of the Delaran household. Now that he thought about it, bringing Eiry to a Shakespeare performance would be perfect! It would be a great way to make him hold still for a moment and keep him quiet for even more.

"Ah...Uh..." Isi stammered, "He hasn't, not yet. He's only been reading Shakespeare's works from books. Is there a Shakespeare company nearby?" He glanced over to his raevan, watching him as he made sweet Vyn laugh. Isi thought that was odd. Usually Eiry was making others startle, scream, or gasp, not giggle. That was just weird.

...But Isi had to admit that it was nice nonetheless.

Fixing himself back into his crutches as Ethan announced the proximity of dinner, Isi readied himself to being walking again. He looked back at Ethan and nodded as he wrapped his fingers around the soft grips of his crutches, "Yes, please. I'd like to sit down." He swung himself a few steps forward and as the kind host apologetically referred to Eiry's meal, Isi paused and said to him with a weak shrug of his shoulders, "Well, unless you're a terrible gardener, I'd doubt you'd have anything Eiry could eat. He eats death from plants."

Then Isi turned towards his ward, "Eiry, Riv. We're moving into the dining room, okay?"

"Spring brings ill-tidings for me, little love I hold for it in my half-formed heart," Eiry said in response to his brother's mention of the change in the season. He rubbed his half-formed chest, "For little there is for me to eat. So hungry am I in the months of spring. Only Gage can help me eat." Eiry tapped his nose and smiled then, his grey face brightening at the thought of his friend, "He can eat from plants, make them grey and crippled, and leave plenty for me to eat after!"

Eiry gave a couple flaps to his ethereal wings, holding himself up straight and tall as he floated near his fellow raevans. He sneered at his brother as the red sigel spoke. "Brother mine," Eiry purred indignantly, "You heartspeak as if I weren't here. "Bratty" is a term reserved for you as much as it is reserved for me."

When everyone started motioning and mentioning the transition to the dining room, Eiry gave a flap of his wings and moved forward, following after his family and hosts, "Yes, Isi, we're coming."

Rivener simply snickered and rolled his eyes as Eiry shot back YOU'RE a brat! without so many words. The minty frei could prose all he wanted, Rivener knew what the gist of it was. "Very mature, Eiry," he chuckled quietly, half-frowning but amused nonetheless. Hearing Vyn so eager to hear about Gage, Rivener let the pair take the lead together, following softly. He himself hadn't seen the masked Raevan since Julian had come to save Isikoro, and that seemed so long ago...

Aphismet's eyes widened as they entered the dining room. Such a... such a work of art for a table! It was fancier than any table Aphismet had ever SEEN, even at the five-star conventions he'd attended! "What a beautiful piece of furniture," the white-haired chef breathed softly, moving to a chair beside one without a placing, motioning for Rivener to come sit by him; Isi and Eiry could sit on the other side, and Vyn would sit wherever she liked. "It must have cost a for-... erm, sorry. I mean it really is gorgeous." Smiling, Aphi tried to glaze over his words, getting the impression that talking about the price of things here would only point out the gap between them even more.

Mentioning Shakespeare was a good way to divert attention, so Aphi smiled broadly at the topic of finding out that there was such a company in town. "That would be wonderful! I think we would ALL enjoy going there, right Isi?" The chef blushed slightly as Ethan went on to mention "that little outing" so casually. The one where Rivener had assaulted a person. Ugh, Ethan must hate them both, Aphi and Riv. Aphi can't keep his Raevan under control and Rivener is violent...

Riv floated over to sit with Aphi almost without needing to be prompted, smiling at the man. He looked so out of sorts, like he'd just walked into a science fiction movie or something. "Relax," the Sigel whispered as he sat, laying a hand on his guardian's shoulder. He doubted his words would have much impact, but at least he tried.