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 Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 2:56 pm
"Honey-"
A sock went flying by, followed by a weathered book and a baseball.
"Sweetheart, maybe you should sit down. And breathe, just a bit. You'll mess your suit, and it looks so nice on you, it'd be a shame to ruin it."
"Can't, Mum! Gotta pack, gotta pack - we can just put the cat in the suitcase, right?"
Julia Carnegie was long since used to her boy's panic attacks, unfortunately, and took this one in stride. Seamus was always the more excitable child - he and Valeriu were really two peas in a pod, she thought, fondly.
"No, dear, kitty doesn't go in the bag." She patiently lifted the frazzled grey tom out of Seamus' hands as the boy rushed back down the hall. The sound of tiny crashes echoed from Seamus' old room, and a sterner note of warning entered her voice. "Now, don't be making a ruckus! You'll wake the baby up, and you know Sydni needs her rest."
A sound of aggravation echoed from the room.
"Mum! Have you even been listening to me? We! Need! To! Go! Just, pack up the whole family--"
"Bumblebee." Her hands, gently but firmly, clasped around his shoulders, steering him towards the door. "Go out and get some fresh air. Relax. Come back when you're not going to pack kitty into the suitcase."
"Mum!"
"Yes, yes. Be a good boy now. Why don't you go play with your friends? When you get back we'll have a nice cup of tea, and you can tell me which girl is making you want to flee the city this time."
Another noise rose in the back of his throat, this time of embarrassment. But he was pushed out the door, left staring abysmally at solid wood. But not for long - eventually he set off at a sprint. Valeriu was at his internship, Murphy with the crew...
Only one person left who might believe him, and it just so happened that those three hours were up.
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Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 9:56 pm
Quinn had a successful day at work, at least in the way of tips. He walked home humming off-key and dancing while he walked. He had a lot to look forward to. A possibly romantic evening with Seamus, the chance to learn some more dancing, and he had money to go clubbing or shopping afterwards.
Either would be worthwhile.
So, seeing Seamus outside of his old house was more exciting than confusing.
"I live over here, now, silly!" He waved at Seamus and pointed at Vale's door. "You can stop ringing the doorbell, now."
He pulled out the key Vale had given him, and unlocked it, pushing it open and leaning against the doorframe.
"Is something wrong?"
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Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 2:32 am
Seamus looked from Quinn's front door to Valeriu's, puzzlement embroidered in the crook of his eyebrows.
"What?"
Quinn's house. Valeriu's house. Quinn's house. The puzzle pieces slowly clicked into place, eliciting a knowing oh from the somewhat unbalanced-seeming Carnegie.
Valeriu and Quinn were?
Again?
Again, his mind confirmed with no small amount of exasperation. Like a damn yo-yo.
He wished he could so easily blame it on who their gods were, but he suspected this would've happened either way. With a quick glance down both sides of the street, he crossed, hopping up Valeriu's steps with easy familiarity.
"Not yet," he answered, with all the vague mystery of the most professional of palm readers. "I Saw something today, and it ain't pretty."
Not pretty was understating it. A wild light was still present in his eyes; the unholy blue of seeing something so terrible that the vision repeated in the mind's eye, over and over, until it drove a man insane. Seamus Carnegie was a man, and a relatively steadfast one (or so he fancied), but from this distance the tremor in his hands was visible, along with the clenching and unclenching of his jaw as tension strummed through his veins.
Half of it was from terror; the other, from frustration.
"Nothing I can do about it, though," he admitted. "Unless I can convince Prince to hide away the entire City's population in his god's realm."
Tezcatlipoca would have words, he knew.
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Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 6:15 pm
"That 'Saw' sounded a bit more important than a casual glance," Quinn frowned, and let Seamus in.
"Why would we have to hide the whole City?" Seamus was being crazy. Was his God making him go nuts?
"Gimme some specifics so I can pretend you're not crazy." He took his apron off and poured all the tips from the pocket into a jar close to the door, and found something to toss his apron on. "I'll get you some water." He headed to the kitchen.
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Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 3:44 am
"Now, hold up a minute - I never said I wasn't crazy. You grow up with Murphy, and something's bound to snap sooner or later." The whites of his teeth flashed as he grinned half-heartedly, following Quinn into the house and shutting the door behind him. He idled in the entryway, unused to being in the home without Valeriu there, but eventually kicked off his shoes and leaned into the kitchen, shoulder resting against the doorway.
"Water would be good. Alcohol, better."
Something to knock him out cold, because he wasn't going to be able to sleep for weeks after what he Saw, mind racing in paranoia every second that ticked by.
"Nukes, Quinn," he said in way of explanation, words clipped as if it was trouble just forcing them out, as if doing so would make it all the more of an immediate possibility. "I was lookin' out over the city, an' then everything was just gone with a flash and a boom. Well," he amended, throat seizing at the memory of it, "not everything. There were some survivors, if you could call 'em that. Never saw a man's flesh melt off like that."
Seamus, overall, was considered a kind man. But he wasn't naive, or even unfamiliar with all the cruelties of humankind, thanks to the trouble he and Murphy had gotten into back in their rougher teenage years. But even he couldn't deny that the sight had shaken him to the core.
"Dunno when, though. It could be years from now, could've been years ago" he added, as if to reassure himself, though he knew without a doubt that the threat was firmly set in the future. "So it's not - I guess it's not very important." Chagrined, realizing that he'd been rushing about like a headless chicken, only calming now that he'd finally informed someone. He gave a contrite grimace, mussing his hair a bit, embarrassed.
"Sorry for freakin' out like this. It just unsettled me. I've Seen a lot of really bad stuff, but that one - totally took the cake."
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