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 Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 3:38 pm
Melody doesn't like telephones. She admits they're a necessary evil in Gaia, especially since she can't read instant or text messages. But still, she just doesn't like them. She doesn't like talking on them, she doesn't like hearing a disembodied voice with no projections to accompany it, she doesn't like holding the receiver to her ear... the list goes on.
But right now, that phone is her best friend in the whole house. That phone is her link to the outside.
That phone is going to save her sanity.
Bip. Bip. Beep. Boop. At least, she thinks with a sigh, she'd learned numbers early enough.
She'd have to hurry. The twins had finally fallen asleep-- passing out due to sheer EXHAUSTION-- and it was only a matter of time before they'd wake up to complain about how bright and loud the house-- supposedly filled with a magic she can't see-- is.
"Hello...? Hitsuga? Is Melody..."
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Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 4:42 pm
"Melody...?" Hitsuga seems a bit confused at first, still clinging to the phone in disarray from where he'd bolted from his workroom and loped across the house like the world's most peculiar gazelle to stop the contraption on the wall from making its godsawful noise.
And then....it dawns on him that, just because the calls he's received on it so far have been from strangers, it doesn't necessarily mean that people he knows may not be able to phone him.
"Melody." he says again, a bit more pleasantly this time, projections she can't sense reflexively accompanying the greeting. "How are you...?"
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Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 4:51 pm
Melody struggles with the words, stammering a few times before finally getting the words out.
"Can Hitsuga... visit? Please?" She can't help but wonder at just how FRAGILE her voice sounds at the moment; like the slightest misstep will break it in two and render her permanently mute.
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Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 5:21 pm
Visit...?
His mind turns to the projects currently on his worktable. He'd set himself the task tonight of finishing them and getting them to their commissioners come morning but...
....but something, perhaps it is only the phone connection distorting it, in Melody's voice gives him pause. Perhaps how small it seems in comparison to the warm, boisterous life that her thoughts usually are carried on.
"I can." he says, nodding needlessly. "Of course I can." He wants to ask if she's all right, but... "Do...you want me to bring over any-thing? For you? For the children?" he asks, his words careful.
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Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 5:46 pm
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Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 5:53 pm
....Hitsuga knows, for a fact, he does not have any of that, so...it is fortunate that the market is not a long walk from the neighborhood. And...he does not imagine, after all, that the remaining fragments of his budget will be broken if he spends a bit.
"I will." he agrees. "See you soon?"
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Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 5:59 pm
"I pay back," Melody assures him; after all, the thing keeping her from ice cream isn't a lack of funds, but rather, lack of a babysitter. "See soon."
And with that, she hangs up the phone, flops onto the sofa, and waits.
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Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 6:37 pm
"N-No, Melody doesn't need to--" but the connection has already gone dead in his ear. Blinking at the receiver, he hangs it back on its cradle, and then immediately heads to put his current projects away.
----------------
It is nearly an hour from their phone call that Melody, at last, will hear a timid knock at her door and a familiar projection of greeting.
Lady Melody...?
and then more quietly, followed by an apologetic projection that he hopes she has not fallen asleep waiting.
In the store bag it is contained in, the ice cream has begun to leak just a bit out of its carton from being carried in the sun. He had not known what kind to bring her, and had been startled by just how many varieties there WERE, and so he had ventured what he felt was the safest guess -- a box that boasted a picture of strawberries, vanilla blooms, and a chocolate bar all at once.
Surely ONE of those would be all right...
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Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 7:58 pm
Outside the door, one could probably STILL manage to hear the sound of babies crying (and feel their projections that something TOO LOUD and TOO BRIGHT is disturbing their sleep)
And when the door finally opens, Melody, looking like hell, takes one look at Hitsuga...
And then, throwing her arms around him, bursts into tears as well.
crying !
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Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 8:31 pm
.............
And to that sort of greeting, Hitsuga cannot fathom anything to say...!
He--Melody---what--?!
He can't seem to form and hang onto a coherent thought in the face of both of the children and their mother's crying... gonk
And so, nearing desperation to try and put some sort of rightness to the great tangled wrong that jangles on the air, he does all he can think to do. Arms gingerly enfold Melody as he tries to quiet her.
Its all right. Its all right.... he assures, keeping his mental presence as steady as he can.
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Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 8:43 pm
Melody just don't know what to DO. The magic... her father said it was magic they're reacting to; magic they can see and hear but no one else can and Melody just doesn't know what to do! She doesn't know where to PUT them where they aren't uncomfortable, she can't just impose on her FATHER every time they need a good night's sleep, she can't BLOCK IT FROM THEIR SIGHT or BLOCK IT FROM THEIR HEARING. What is she supposed to DO? Move? Where are they going to find a place in GAIA that isn't going to have a mage or some kind of god or goddess or magical forest creature living next door?!
She hasn't had a night's sleep since the babies were born, and the only time she can sleep for more than thirty minutes is when she's either at her father's house or when the babies are finally so completely EXHAUSTED they can't even keep their eyes open anymore!
And through these frantic, tired, frustrated projections, all Melody can do is sob on Hitusga's shoulder.
It's not FAIR! Why isn't anything in her family NORMAL!?
She abruptly stops, holding her breath to keep the sobs at bay while she struggles to clear her mind.
Melody... she didn't mean that. She didn't mean that! How could she SAY such horrible things?!
She promptly resumes bawling.
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Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 9:16 pm
He--He knows Melody didn't mean any of that, he assures her, tightening his hold a bit as the crying resumes anew, feeling like he's not helping much of anything currently.
Melody is tired and frustrated, she can say whatever she needs to. He will not judge, he will not tell anyone.
And, seeming at a loss for anything else to say, other than a solid flag of soothing nothings that try to blanket the jagged and exhausted turmoil that issues from her, he falls silent. It may be for the best, after all, to simply do for her as her father had done for him....and just let her get it all out before trying to piece together sense and solutions.
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Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 9:20 pm
She's sorry for calling Hitsuga away from whatever he's been doing, but... she feels like she's going to go INSANE. She just needs someone to talk to who isn't in diapers or related to her; they'll think she's a horrible, HORRIBLE person and Boyue will just feel guilty and... and Hitsuga understands, right? Right?
...Hitsuga smells like Neapolitan ice cream. confused
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Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 9:28 pm
Of course he understands, he tells her. There are some things you just can't tell certain people. There are things, for example, Baikou knows that he would never have told his family, and by the same token, there are things his sister knows he would never tell Baikou.
If it will make her feel better to talk, he will listen.
....and....and....yes, that, umm....
He works an arm free of the hug to lift the bag the ice cream is in. There is a small puddle of pink-white-and-brown mess collected in one of the corners of the plastic bag that thankfully has not escaped.
He's afraid it seems to be a bit....melty. But perhaps still good if she gets it in a bowl fast enough? sweatdrop
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Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 9:33 pm
Melody gingerly takes the bag, hefting it once before shaking her head.
They could always put it in the freezer to harden a little. Melody really should take the children out of their cradles first... Maybe there's SOMEWHERE in the house that would be a little quieter today.
If Melody knew anything about magic at all, maybe she could at least protect them from it. emo
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