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 Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 3:45 pm
Who: Anastacia, Eiry, and Zeke When: Morning of December 30th, 2010; a car's drive after Isi`s call to Zeke and this soloWhere: The police blockade outside Lab 305 Weather: Cloudy, cold and made colder by the presence of the ice castle
Once Eiry had gotten into the car (which was a feat all its own and could have been amusing if the situation weren't so dire), Zeke wasted no time in getting himself, the Sigel, and Anastacia out to Gambino. He sped, he took turns he probably wasn't supposed to by law, and he beat traffic by going the back way, but by some miracle or higher power's will, the car and all its inhabitants reached their destination in one piece.
"s**t, forgot about them." Zeke muttered in regards to the droves of people who were lining the streets and sidewalks in order to see the scene at large. The car was forced to a crawl as pedestrians crossed and ambled slowly with no concern to the presence of the three in the Aston Martin or their cobbled together mission. Zeke uttered a couple curses under his breath, but when he was able to make a turn onto another side street, he took it.
"Thank god. Okay, here's what's gonna happen." He cast a glance to the minty Sigel in his passenger seat who had his eyes covered in a blindfold. He didn't know how much Isi told Eiry about the plan in the time it took for the vet to arrive at the Delaran's, but it made Zeke feel better to repeat it anyway. It felt real and felt like it would work. They had a hope now. "I'm gonna try and get us as close to the barricade nearest to the Lab as I can." He was forced to come to a stop as some more pedestrians crossed in the crosswalk, but used this time to look in the backseat at his own Raevan. "It's gonna be cold out there, but see that blanket there Anya? That should be warm from the heaters, so wrap yourself up in that before you get out."
The Frei in the backseat only nodded, still blown right off her axis at everything that had just come to pass in the span of a half hour's time. Her eyes remained planted on him and the male Raevan in front but she knew what Zeke was talking about and after a moment leaned over to pluck the quilt off the Aston's floor.
"We might have to take a short walk..." Zeke eyed the cars and amount of people and police that only seemed to thicken as he drove. "But when we get up there, I'm going to tell the first officer I find about the possibility of there being more than two people inside." Zeke felt that sick twist in his gut again and winced. It was just a possibility she was in there, but at least two people were and then there were the growing Raevans...
"Eiry, I don't know if you knew already or if Isi told you this, but there's at least two Raevans in tanks in there." There was also one that was always lit, but what was in there neither grew nor truly seemed alive. "I...I don't know what you can do in that case...but maybe the Lab has some special heat sources going to the tanks and back up generators for them...so they might be okay."
'Might' was the keyword but he didn't say anything else on that. He thought back to Anita and her natural worry about her Raevan. Zeke empathized with her, but even if the Lab didn't have stuff like that in play for the tanks, Mister or Miss Crocodile would be better off inside the tube than outside it. At the end of the day, they'd all just have to hope.
"I'm going to be staying outside the Lab with Anya. I dunno if I'll get anymore calls, but if I do, I'll need to be right there for them." He hoped Eiry understood that. Things were in an uproar and not just in Gambino and people would need guidance. "Plus it'd be better to have one on the outside to keep those running this show up to date and if you can get in, you'd be able to get everyone out without using up too much of your energy." This was very important, and Zeke firmly held the belief that if he went in there with the Sigel - as much as he wanted to - his presence would be more of a hinder than a help. Eiry would also have his phone on him so even though the lan lines were down, they could keep in contact thanks to the magic of cellphones.
"Are you okay with that Eiry?" The Sigel hadn't really moved or spoken since getting into the car - seized up once the belt was strapped over him - but now that the ride was just about over, Zeke had to be absolutely certain. The wisp was risking a lot with just the agreement of doing something this crazy.
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Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 8:18 pm
Eiry sat as stiff as the dead in the passenger seat of the car, a thin strip of white cloth pulled tightly around his eyes and his teeth grit hard. With his chin tucked close to his high collar, tightly wrapped about his neck, he kept himself as stiff as possible in the car seat, wishing that the car would roll to a stop and release him from its noisy bowels. He may have persuaded himself to get into the car before, not only that, but convinced himself to drive with the help of Lucia, but he was still possessed with a deathly fear whenever he managed to get himself into one again. Getting into Zeke's silver car was, by itself, a challenge especially since he wasn't going along with any family member, but a car of perfect strangers. It was only after a distinct amount of comical hesitation, that he squirmed inside, strapped himself to the seat, and gulped, ready to die. Lucia and the need to get to Isikoro, without a doubt, helped him get into the car without having the desperate need to dive underneath Rivener's arm and cling to the sound of his heartbeat for dear life, but he was still reluctant at best. After further testing of his strength of will, Eiry discovered that all he had to do was close his eyes, or use something to cover them, and he didn't have to rely on hearing the heartbeat of another in order to get by in the belly of the monster. Eiry took a deep steadying breath, and tried to relax himself from being plastered to the seat.
Zeke was talking, that much Eiry could tell, and he was more than happy to distract himself with listening to the panicky man's voice. Since they had been in the car, Zeke's panic had gone down in fear, and Eiry was almost convinced that he could be trusted with the wheel of the car as well as the control of the quest at hand, but as they drew closer to the scene of terror, the shake in Zeke's voice returned. Eiry's faith in Zeke wasn't shaken by this, though, he was, instead, comforted by the sound of similar fear in someone other than himself. So when Zeke began to murmur, talking more and more the closer that they got to the Lab, Eiry did his best to pay attention, and tried even harder to muster up some words of reply. It didn't work.
Behind him, he felt the presence of the lavender frei, a raevan who Eiry couldn't convince himself to speak to yet. He had been trying to think of a way to approach her besides, "Were you the muse for the late H.P Lovecraft?". He wanted to make a good impression with her if he was to later enlist her in his effort to create a string of night time pranks and horrors. Now, though, he couldn't focus on that. He couldn't focus on anything besides the sound of his own heart beat, thrumming in his chest. He checked his satchel of belongings: Isi's cellphone which he had borrowed for communication, a pair of white gentleman's gloves, a wad of money from Isi in case of an emergency, the broken stems and leaves of a dead plant, for a snack, and, of course, a book for companionship, J.W. Barrie's Peter Pan. The Eiry Essentials, as it were. Then there was a bump and a swerve in the car as they turned.
They were almost to the barricade.
"As short a walk as it may be, much longer still is the time we must wait until we discover the state of the still beating heart inside the icy chapel," Eiry blathered, speaking much faster than his normal tone. He nervously straightened out his cuffs, tilting his head so that his pointed ear caught the rest of the Zeke's plan. He tried his best to continue answering his questions, "Isi detailed to me the state of those inside as he last writ it in the pages of his memory. The good doctor white, and precious Alex, and wielder of flame, dear Lazarus, those first I will see, struggle to see, struggle to find. Those three alone, and others perhaps, but those three first, I know."
After a while of not moving in the seat, seat belt strapped tightly across his Empire period style clothing, Eiry gave a nod, his hands having replaced themselves to their iron grip on hand grips of the car as he tucked his chin into his white high collar. He looked like Mr. Darcy had he been turned green with sickness. "Fine, fine, and dandy, sure, this matters not. What matters is that of those who reside trapped in the icy prison."
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Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2011 1:36 pm
"We don't know if Alex is in there for sure, but there's the possibility like I said." Again there was another flop of his stomach as Eiry seemed to think Alex was in fact in there. It wasn't proven, yet, but by now Zeke's mind was starting to whisper that this could in fact be the truth for real. The Lab had a number of guardians but the numbers weren't astronomical. Even if everyone was calling at once, she should have been able to tame enough worries by now to check messages and get back to him.
All the same, it took Zeke a moment to process and work out Eiry's archaic way of speaking. It didn't bother him that the Sigel spoke poetically - at another time he would happily say it was quirky and he liked it - but he wasn't used to the Old English dialect all the same and it made the vet have to stop and think about what the minty Raevan was saying in layman's terms. Not too hard, but not as easy as speaking modern English either. He'd get used to it though. It'd just take some time.
On the other end of the guardian-Raevan duo, Anastacia's take on the other Raevan's speech was different than Zeke's. Thanks to her present state, when Eiry finally spoke she turned her head slowly and completely toward the male sitting in the front seat, almost as if she hadn't heard him correctly. As he chattered on her brows raised then knit together which added to her look of confusion and added a loss that was only increased when she gave her head a tilt to the side.
...What? Had she not been taken off her axis, she would have instantly found the Sigel annoying (and irritatingly so). But since that wasn't the case at this very moment, she had no opinion past 'strange' and more questions and that was that. No positives, no negatives, just that state of quiet uncertainty.
"O-Okay, I think this is about as close as I'm going to get with how everything's set up here." Zeke pulled the car to the side and parked it, leaving the heat on until they were all certainly ready to get out and get moving. As Eiry agreed to the plan, the vet gave him a clap on the shoulder and a nod that the Sigel would not be able to see until that blindfold was off. "G-Good man." He added a smile as well but it was a tired one, then turned around to look at his charge. "Ready Anya?"
The Frei turned her head to look at her guardian, catching that tired expression that held hints of sadness mixed with that worry and some eagerness. Like with looking at Eiry, the Frei's actions were slow, but she nodded all the same. Yes, she was ready. This was the place they had to 'go' to, and the place Zeke said she had to see to believe. Looking at the people passing by the car, they were quite the same as she.
"Good girl." He turned the key in the ignition so the car's engine came to a stop. One hand clenched the wheel tightly until the vet's knuckles paled and then finally dropped to grasp the handle of the door. "Three...Two...One...Let's go."
The door was opened and Zeke pulled himself from his vehicle and onto the street. He quickly shut the door behind him to allow for that precious heat to stay in long enough for Anastacia to get the quilt transfixed around her and when she was ready he opened the door for her as well.
When she floated out onto the street it was just the same as going out the apartment building's front door earlier this morning. She balked back inside, but then tucked everything warm she had up and about her form to add some extra protection. The itch of curiosity pushed her out and as before she did her best to follow her guardian's path.
As she followed, the world caught in a haze became clearer and opened up the scene to her. People of all shapes, sizes, colors, and dressage were moving about before and around a veritable wall of police cars, fire trucks, and a couple ambulances. Crowds formed on the snow-topped grass and sidewalks on both sides of the street, and quite a few people stood with their arms atop chest-high wooden stands marked with a symbol she hadn't seen before. Such a commotion, but it wasn't utter chaos. The men in blue uniforms on the opposite sides of those stands were making sure of it.
"Eiry, don't try to phase through near the front. If anything happens I probably won't be able to get to you without about fifty cops on my a**." Zeke came to a sudden stop and stood on tiptoe to look over heads at the castle of ice. "Jesus..." he hissed, and felt a crawling all over his skin. If it looked bad on the news, seeing it live was worse. A crude castle and no way to physically get in or out. Even the chimney was covered.
"It's crawling with police..." Expected, but still a pain, especially if Eiry needed to be rescued. "Where do you think, Eiry?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2011 7:10 pm
Question marks or not, Alex and the others, had a possibility of being inside there. That alone, no matter how slim the chance, was enough to spurn Eiry into that desperate quest. He sucked in his breath, stabilizing his nerve, when Zeke clapped his hand on his shoulder, making him jump in the seat like he had been bitten. Eiry clawed at his face, ripping down the strip of cloth from his face so that he could see his friendly assailant. It was the first time that he was able to really see him, take a few moments to register the features of his face and the colors in his hair, an interesting mix of green and purple. He had a kind face, although it was twisted with the worry they all shared and Eiry was pacified by the fact that he could find solace with it. He summoned a meek smile to his face, a Cheshire grin that lacked the spark of mischievousness. There was no time for pranks, jokes, and hilarity now, or even his favorite quotes and recitations. It was time for action. So, pulling his high collar tight about his neck and pushing his feathery hair out of his face, the raevan all too eagerly phased through the seat belt and the door of the car, not even bothering to open them for his passage.
Floating outside and stretching his wispy wings, Eiry shivered with the blast of cold that greeted him. It wasn't this cold at Durem, he knew. It could only be the work of the ice castle ahead. He narrowed his gaze, floating forward so that he could catch a glimpse of the ice castle, and upon seeing it in person, as real and as cold as the fear in his gut, Eiry felt...Jealous. That was some grand prank, if there ever was one, and Eiry was honestly jealous that he hadn't thought it up first. Though, he knew, it would be ridiculous to try to duplicate, even on a small scale, for himself, there was no knowing what kind of...Eiry choked off his natural tendencies, and shivered them away with the chatter of his teeth. He floated through the car to the other side where Zeke and Anya gathered.
Upon coming closer to the quiet lavender frei, Eiry dropped his head in a courteous bow, unlacing his arms from about his chest to grace her with a proper gentleman's bow. He tried to smile his hello, but the edges of his mouth was pulled into a tight frown whenever he thought of their poor meeting.
"Lady Lavender," he said as he scooped up and wrapped his arms about his torso to ward his chest from the cold, "A true pity it is we haven't met proper until this grievous moment, but hope stirs in my chest that there will be better times in which we can formally introduce ourselves. I must stand to say, though, that you are a terrific beauty too fair to ignore." The wisp raevan gave a tremendous shake of his shoulders, looking back towards the ice cube that was Lab 305, "But there are more pressing matters at hand, an ague that we cannot ignore, somewhere deep inside the store that used to be our native birthplace, we must now invade."
Turning his attention to Zeke, the small, even for a sigel, raevan nodded his head as he gave his list of observations. They had to make a plan, and oh, was Eiry good at planning. His hobby for tricking others required no less than that. He looked out, using his quick thinking mind to devise a plan, taking in for account all the police cars and people, his own abilities and the people on their team. He made sure to take everything into place and within moments, the raevan had a plan.
"Beneath the earth," Eiry said aloud, holding a eureka finger into the air. He swooped closer to Zeke with the push of his wings, like he were telling a secret, "I can travel beneath Lady Gaia's crust, brush close like a child to her bosom. I may pass through the good guards that way, crawl up on the other side where they cannot lay their eyes upon me. I can gather us, the trio, like this and bring us forth to the other side."
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Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 11:21 am
While Zeke was busy scoping out the perfect spot for them over the sea of heads and shoulders, Anastacia hovered near her guardian's side, focusing on leeching heat from the man's body. Though the barrier had been set up to keep the crowd a reasonable distance from the ice castle, the cold that wafted from its walls was pushed toward those standing there thanks to the wind coming off the nearby ocean. Anya shivered. Though the blanket had indeed been heated thoroughly by the heaters in Zeke's car, now that they were outside and near that ungodly source of chill it was quickly evaporating and leaving her with a blanket of chill around her head and partial body. She needed heat - her body cried for it as it began to feel heavy and slow - and had to get it where she could.
"Lady Lavender," Eiry's voice made her head turn to the older Raevan and as the male continued to speak, she could only feel that same confusion she had in the car. Beneath her blanket cover her head turned once again, unable to comprehend what the Sigel was saying though she could sense a compliment in there. But like the minty one said (or seemed to say) now wasn't the time. She couldn't see the building properly as he or her guardian could, but she could feel it well enough. This was what she had to see to believe, and feeling it worked well enough where vision lacked. This was what had Zeke in an uncharacteristic tizzy this morning and if it really was the Lab - she had heard them speak the building's name, but hadn't truly registered it - she knew why that was.
"Anya, are you okay?" Zeke turned his eyes to his Raevan who was floating much closer than she ever had to him. He punched himself mentally - he had said he wanted to make sure she was okay during this, but he hadn't properly prepared her now had he? Her winter cover and a blanket...If he had just stopped flipping his s**t for one second and maybe thought about a comforter or a hot water bottle to add to her...But it couldn't be helped now. Instead (and despite his knowledge that she didn't like to be touched) Zeke wrapped an arm about his Raevan's shoulders and pulled her in close. "Sorry...'M an idiot..."
There was some resistance on the Frei's part but heat was heat, and through the thin covering on her guardian she could feel a little. It wasn't enough, but it was a start. She allowed this action this one time.
"Beneath the earth?" He waited for Eiry to finish his words and when the Sigel did, he had to shake his head. "Only you can get close to it, Eiry." And he nodded at his Frei who had since taken up the end of the blanket in hand in order to twist it closed around her rune and ribbon. "I think being right here is having an effect on her." He turned his head to look around again and saw a police car with its engine still running just a jog away. What's more, there was a clear field of vision of the Lab and a few police officers milling about nearby. Zeke pointed it out.
"S-See that car there? I sh-should be able to see you well enough there and keep Anya warm too." Zeke hugged his Raevan closer, unable to not feel the chill now. Even with the unnatural cold, the engine and its cover would still be hot. But while that was good in the now, what about if Eiry needed rescuing? He might have to dive through the crowd, but the Lab did have a garden on both sides of the building. Most of it had a crisp hanging of ice, but if he was lucky, he might be able to cut through the bushes if need be. Hopefully not, but all things had to be considered and fast as time was of the essence. They were being reckless, but they had to have some smarts about them too...
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Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 12:47 pm
Taking mental note of the car that Zeke had pointed out, an official looking blue and white speedster, Eiry nodded his agreement. It would be far quicker, far faster, if he could get there by himself without expending his quickly wasting energy. The faster he could investigate the chilled over ice block of the Lab, the faster they could get Anya out of the cold and back to the warmth where she wouldn't be so sapped of energy, lethargic to a point of unconcern for anything else but the warmth her body so desperately needed. He needed to move fast, like a spirit teasing the eye of the wary, just out of sight and out of mind.
Digging into his satchel, the raevan pulled out Isi's cellphone, a beaten and worn thing that had, no doubt, been dropped more times than it should be able to stand, but somehow, was able to weather. He displayed it openly for Zeke to see, and pointed at the device, "Ring like a bell, I shall send its toll to you should any gain or loss come to pass. Prithee, keep yours close. A ring, a ring, listen close for it."
With a deep inhale, the Sigel, his feathery hair floating about the frame of his face, gave a bow of goodbye before he turned to face the Lab. He needed to be quick and his usually long and flowery farewell was cut down to a brief and half hearted curtsy that transformed into a kind of dive. It only took a beat of his fiery wings, and struggle of his arms, and a shiver of focus, before Eiry dug himself into intangibility and pressed his body through the claustrophobic press of the street cement and the earth below. It was hard to breathe.
Granted, Eiry had to hold his breath, which was something he was uncannily good at, since he had practiced long in the trade of keeping absolutely silent until he was able to rival the stealth of a cat even, but as he swam through the earth, pulling himself forward through the solid mass that was turned into a thick kind of mud when he was intangible, he knew he would have to come up for air. Like a unknown beast of hell, he crawled underneath the black top and the barricade, the property in front of the lab, but he needed to breathe soon. His lungs began to press in on themselves and scream. He only hoped that he would be able to pull up in a safe area, perhaps under the bushes that he came to tend with Isi when the boy came in to do some work. If anyone was to know where they hugged the Lab property, it was Eiry, and he was pleasantly surprised to find that he was right in terms of his internal compass when he peeked his head up from the earth to breath in his fill, safely covered by frozen bramble. The plants here were dead. Eiry could smell the delicious aroma, and with a closing of his eyes and a slow crane of his neck, he absorbed what he could of the plant death, forcing the leaves to turn bright green with health, and to make a few branches shiver underneath their blanket of frost. He needed the energy.
Momentarily energized by the brief snack, Eiry held his breath again and dived low, swimming towards the Lab. If he could, perhaps he could tunnel up from underneath the floors, climb right into the building from underneath? It seemed like a great plan, but when Eiry drew close to the base of the structure itself, he felt a terrible cold press in on him, a cold that squeezed his lungs, and squeezed the entirety of himself. He couldn't go closer. Backpedaling, Eiry flapped his wings, and pushed himself to the side, changing direction so that he orbited the Lab, swung around the side and dove up from the back. When he pulled himself back up into the air, breathing hard and coughing and stretching his wings, he was surprised to find himself winded. Not winded from the loss of breath, but winded from his ability. Had he been underneath the ground any longer, Eiry might have lost his focus, lost control, and, ultimately, crushed himself under the weight of the earth. Could it be that the cold was sapping his energy, just like it was to Anya?
Blinking madly, the sprightly poet let himself lay on the frost covered tundra in the shadow of the great building, gathering together his wits and his strength.
"Too much," he muttered to himself, "Too much..." And the Sigel reached for his satchel, pulling forth his meager snack of dead leaves and twigs. Breathing them to life, a bright and sharp green, Eiry let himself lay on the ground, reeling from a sudden loss of energy.
"What trickery is this...That would turn a spirit to flesh..."
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Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 8:13 pm
As the Sigel dug and pulled his own cellphone free from his bag, Zeke nodded and did the same - pulling his own free from his pocket and squeezing it tight in his hand.
"It won't leave my side."
He said no more, because as soon as Eiry gave his parting bow Zeke was immediately wheeling his Raevan around and then pushing her toward the car that stood just a few feet away. Out of offhanded politeness did he mutter 'excuse us' and 'coming through' but he didn't look at the faces that passed as he led the way to the cruiser. He was distracted, looking both forward and behind, and trying so hard as to keep the fresh crop of nervousness behind the already weakened gates in his chest. He had to keep his wits, especially as he and Anastacia got to the car and he locked eyes with the first police man he saw.
"Excuse me! Officer?!"
She heard her guardian's voice call out to a police officer but nothing more past that. Her mind was blank save for the tinny voice in her head crying out for her to latch onto the car's hood and soak up the life-sustaining warmth. She did just that, guided into a forward fall until her blanket-wrapped body was pressed against hot, rumbling metal. Anastacia released a held breath in a half-shocked gasp - immediately reawakened as soon at heat flew inward and wrapped her up in its embrace. It spread from her front to her back and everywhere in between, kissing her rune and even getting into the joints of her collapsed wings and crown. This...This was wonderful and she slowly felt herself reviving.
As the spider queen healed and fed, her guardian was repeating all he could only fear to figure to the police officer. His hands moved erratically as he talked - a flurry of pent up energy - and his voice hitched more times than he could count as he went on, but it didn't take too long until the officer was on his radio and translating the raver's nervous jargon into official sounding code.
"I'm going to report this directly to the EMTs, okay?" The officer said the moment he dropped his radio from his lips. "I know you said you have family inside, but stay here." Clearly he was factoring Zeke's overall appearance into his words rather than just the vet's worried gaze. "We're going to do everything we can to get everyone out, no matter how many people are stuck inside."
"R-Right, yeah." Zeke replied in an almost offhanded way as his eyes quickly went to surveying the building at large. The cop went off to do what he said he would, but Zeke didn't give the man a second glance. He squeezed his phone, looking for any sign of the Sigel and those stuck inside as well. It didn't take long for him to spot the Sigel, but it wasn't in the manner he had desperately been hoping.
Eiry came up from the ground and the moment he flickered into tangibility did Zeke's eyes pinpoint the Raevan. They followed the Sigel as he seemed to double over in a coughing fit, float toward the bushes, and then finally vanish behind the thick row. Zeke's heart began to sink but then immediately froze, alarm taking the front and center in his mind. It made him reel and then whirl to look at his Raevan, uttering the words the cop had spoken to him but in a decidedly different tone.
"Anya...Stay here."
And then he was gone, moving on autopilot. Anastacia's head turned enough to rest her cheek upon the cruiser's hood and catch her guardian leave her field of clear vision and the immediate area. Stay here? Was that what he had said? ...She could do that and was all too happy to comply. Still though...Curiosity tugged at her and with the fresh taste of heat on her tongue and in her veins she lifted herself up just enough to attempt to see that shock of green and purple weaving in, out, and around bodies clad in drabber colors. She hadn't heard his words to the cop and though she knew where she was and partially why, she couldn't stop the thought that floated through her head when Zeke finally did vanish into the fog:
What is he doing?
Zeke's heart climbed into his throat as he jogged through the people who were for some reason all in his goddamn way right this moment. There was no cheer in his voice - no apology either - and he all but snapped at those who didn't move fast enough.
Eiry. There was something wrong with Eiry. The Sigel was strung out on the snow - luckily out of sight of those who were working and lingering as close as they could - and there was something wrong. Zeke didn't even begin to think on the why, just on the fact the Raevan he had been charged to watch over was now likely in need of the same warmth Anastacia needed, if not more than that. The fact Eiry appeared to have been empty handed only touched the corner of Zeke's mind, but crawled toward the spotlight as Zeke slipped beneath the blockade line to make a break into the snow-capped bushes. The thought continued its movement as he pushed through dead foliage and stabbing branches and finally got its light as Zeke broke through and his eyes fell onto the fallen Frei.
"Eiry!" He cried, not stopping for an instant and all but throwing himself into full gear to get to his fallen comrade. "What happened? Where are the---Whoa!"
The snow beneath his feet held a slippery secret. The moment Zeke's boot touched snow-dusted ice it flew upward and the vet could barely begin to realize he was falling until he hit the ground. His knees screamed in pain as he slid along the ground and past the fallen Sigel right up to the great mass of ice itself. It had been colder than cold the nearer he had gotten to lab, but now the chill sank into him like a rock into a lake, piercing his thin jacket and much like his Raevan sink into his very core. It was excruciating and as he slid closer to the wall of ice, Zeke could only do what any human would - attempt to get himself away from the source. His free hand flew out before him, pressing against the wall that could freeze boiling water, and tried to pull himself up and back at the same time.
What left his lips was not a grunt of strain or a groan of having put pressure on sore knees. No, what was released from his mouth was a mixed cry of both pain and horrified shock, one sound loud enough to reach Eiry but be lost among the sirens, roars, and cries of those working hard to free those inside. Much like a tongue to a flagpole in January, Zeke's uncovered hand had frozen to the wall on contact and only tugged painfully back as the vet tried to stand. Alarm pushed back against the thought that Eiry hadn't brought anyone out and Zeke's instincts took over. He struggled to pull his hand away, only getting more cold and stinging from his palm in response. Struggling turned to jerking and twisting but there was no give.
"No, no, no...!" he hissed, forgetting the phone in the snow as everything whirled before his eyes once more and he used his other hand to tug uselessly at his wrist. He couldn't be stuck! He couldn't...But he was. Trapped like a rat and Eiry was down--
"Eiry!" His head turned over his shoulder as far as he could make it go. "Eiry, are you okay? Can you move? I'm stuck, I need your help!" Please don't be unconscious...
s**t, what had they gotten into? And what the ******** was this?
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Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 3:05 pm
For some time, Eiry laid himself out on the cold snow, breathing in his energy, gathering and scraping together what he could to convince himself to lift up from the ice. He was still reeling, though, already tired. It was a strange feeling, to be sapped of this much energy, when he was already an amazing energetic being. He had copious amounts of life, hyper and hard to keep in place at even the best of times. How was it that now, just after a short use of his skills, he was left breathless and aching?
Eiry managed to levy himself up from the ground, breathing in quick sucking breaths, his minty bangs in his eyes and his wings draped tiredly around his head. He didn't want to do much else than crawl away from the icebound building, but he had to remember those that were trapped inside: The man who brought him to life, the sigel who was warm and strong, always there to help, and Alex...Dear Alex. Eiry sucked in a strong gasp of breath, tucking his arm underneath him again as he tried to convince his body to float up again. Just as he began to pull himself up, though, a voice he had not heard for more than a few moments cropped up from behind him, spouting concern and questions. But the same moment that Eiry turned to see him approach, Zeke lost his footing and slid past him and into the wall of the ice building.
Eiry squeaked, his shoulders jerking with surprise, "Zeke!"
The man was stuck. It didn't take long for Eiry to figure that much out from the way that he jerked uselessly against the ice, the hand that he had placed out to steady his fall was glued fast to the cold. Eiry crawled forward, looking very much like a war victim who had his legs blasted off in battle, with nothing left but ribbons to mark where the lower half of his body used to be. The ghostly sigel wrenched himself up as much as he could from the ground then, sluggishly making his way to his side, spreading his ghostly flame wings out to balance him.
"Who, who, what, what?" Eiry stammered, his teeth beginning to chatter with cold as he entered within the yard radius of the building. He tested the man's anchor to the ice by tugging on his arm, but with little else to anchor to, his strength wouldn't be enough. Even with the beat of his ethereal wings and the strain of his arms, Eiry could not pull the young vet free.
"What foolery brings you here, Zeke?" gasped Eiry. His voice was cracking with worry as he tried to think with his clever mind for some alternate solution. "The little bell in the box we both have hadn't rung its toll for you. Needed a spot of rest was all I was requiring before I would make my attempt of infiltration." He took several breaths, blinking his eyes heavily. Closer to the building, he found it harder to move, harder to think. The flames in his wings crackled, choked off by the cold and struggling to burn like a candle's light just before its oxygen was sealed off. "I am coherent," he said in a reassuring voice that was less than the strength he wanted it to be. "I am coherent."
But he wouldn't be for long if he didn't think quick. Eiry ground the gears of his brain together, thinking of some way to pry the poor man free. His hand would be fast loosing sensitivity as its skin cells were slowly claimed by the cold. With that intense of a chill, he might loose his fingers to a slowly increasing frost bite. But what could he use to pry his hands free if there wasn't any strength in him and not enough strength in his companion? Hot water would have been preferable, but how was hot water that froze on contact going to help them? That would only freeze him more securely to the wall with a glove of ice to claim his hand before they had to cut off the limb. Eiry thought instead to himself. What had he to offer the man? His intangibility. But, with the amount of energy that he had now, he could not will both himself and the man intangible. Just trying to think about willing himself intangible felt like he were trying to get himself to run after drowning his limbs in adrenaline, stiff and poisoned with strain. If...If they had something like a crowbar. Something to wedge in between, perhaps it would sever the bond between Zeke's hand and the ice long enough for him to push himself away and to freedom. But what could get between them?
Eiry knew.
With his own wings shrinking in size, little child arm sized protrusions instead of the great wings they were before, Eiry twisted himself and adjusted into intangibility so that he moved through Zeke's body and between him, settling himself in his arms, as if they were in tight little ride with no seat belts, only each other to hold them in place.
Eiry didn't turn around to speak to Zeke, only to relay his directions as he mustered up what energy he could for what he was about to do. "Zeke, sir, you need to push with your legs against the ground, the wall, push away when I give your hand my own to sever itself from the ice."
Then Eiry pressed his hands forward, folding them atop one another, making a solid platform that he pressed through Zeke's hands and to the supernatural ice on the other side. The cold that stabbed through his palms quickly began leeching the energy that Eiry had willed together, but what it did do, was replace the bond between Zeke's sweaty frozen palm and the ice with a layer of other frozen skin that wasn't as strong a cold as the ice itself.
Eiry yelped, digging his chin into his 17th century neck wrap, as he focused on keeping himself strong. His strength was magic, and death could claim him if Eiry didn't prove that here and now. And at the same time, Eiry tried to push forward, testing the mass of the ice, trying to force himself forward and into the wall, like he could with so many other corporeal objects, but he couldn't so much as push through a few centimeters before his intangibility was bitten with the magic cold.
"Free yourself," Eiry said between grit teeth, blinking his red eyes as if trying to keep awake. His wings flickered madly on his back, lighting up the back of his minty hair with glistening flashes of ghostly light. "Free yourself now, good man, push away from the ice!"
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Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 11:51 am
"E-Eiry," Zeke said with relief despite his own predicament when the Sigel rose from the ground and made his way to the vet's side, "I-I-I kn-know, b-b-b-but I-I s-saw you f-fall a-and...I-Instinct." He gave a small smile. Perhaps he had jumped the gun once again but he had made a promise to Isi. Seeing Eiry fall like that...He couldn't have just stuck around by the police car! The call the Sigel spoke about might not have come in at all and where would they be now? No where good, even if the present situation was in that category as well.
Now that he was here, the call he should have been waiting for was superfluous. Now that Zeke was here, with Eiry, stuck to the wall and definitely feeling the burning pain that came with cold on bare skin, the call was past. The small smile the vet had put one quickly faded into a look of pain as the chill turned his hand red and slid up his arm. As Eiry grasped his arm and pulled Zeke did as well, but that only left the vet feeling added hurt as his skin felt like it would rip clean off his hand. As he looked at it and its growing redness, Zeke knew that might have to be the case lest he get frostbite or have to lose more than the skin there. With those options, it didn't take long for the increasingly cold raver to decide: he'd have to leave a little bit of himself behind in order to get himself and Eiry away from this too-cold ice and the building it covered. A necessary sacrifice, but it would grow back.
"E-Eiry I th-think..." he started to speak, but was cut off both by the chattering of his own teeth and the gasp he uttered in shock as Eiry passed through him. It was an odd feeling in and of itself, but he couldn't focus on it. Instead, all Zeke could do was look in confusion at the back of the Sigel's head when he became tangible again.
"G-Give m-my hand your own?" The Shakespearean English was a riddle to his ears and it didn't help that the chill was quickly making the vet feel muddled and sluggish. He was slow on the uptake, especially as Eiry acted before he could get a reply for just what the line meant. He felt the strange pull away as Eiry's hands passed through his entrapped own - barely feeling the tearing his skin was doing as it was forced away from the ice as the cold had claimed his ability to feel there - and it was there he realized what the Sigel was going to do. And what would that lead to? A similar predicament, perhaps, with Eiry being in his place instead and there was no time to ask if that was true.
Zeke jumped that gun again.
The hand that hadn't gotten stuck curled around what it could of the Sigel's midriff and Zeke grabbed at Eiry's coat in order to have something of a firm grip around him. When he had the Sigel cradled as firmly as possible against his chest, Zeke did kick against the wall and kicked with as much might as he could muster. A mingled cry left his lips again - of pain, exertion, exhaustion, and of a very human desire to get free and NOW - and the vet was very nearly blinded by the flashes of ghost fire that flared up right before his eyes. He was sore, he was tired, he was scared, alarmed, cold, and hurting, but he did kick and push and managed to pull away.
"C'mon...C'MON!" He didn't let Eiry go as he pushed, and put all his dimming energy into his legs and arm. What he felt was a cold-dulled throb and tear of flesh away from ice and as his legs gave a final push out, Zeke slid back a small distance; free from the wall. Immediately blood pooled to the surface of his palm but he didn't even look at the damage that had been done and his mind went to one thing - was Eiry free?
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Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2011 11:56 pm
Every ounce of energy was being directed towards his hands. When once before, Eiry had been entirely intangible, he was, within the span of a couple moments, losing intangibility like it was being sucked through his hands by the dry hungry leech that was the ice wall. It took all his strength to keep himself from snapping back into tangibility while still crossing boundaries with Zeke's body. He knew that if he became tangible at such a trying time with his body crossed with Zeke, he or Zeke would lose the space that was crossed, like a cookie cutter into flesh. Eiry had taken care so that such a situation would never arise, but that didn't stop him from pulling Isi and Alex in through walls when he was ill. As backwards as it was, he knew he had more control then, more power, and he could choose which it was that lost the crossed space, choosing always the inanimate object over the live one for amusement than the aim to hurt. Had his strength not been augmented, Isi might have been cut in two by the floor, a severed body seeping blood into the wood panels.
So, adjusting his arms with obvious panic as he watched himself sink back into intangibility, Eiry found himself pressed tight to Zeke's lap, his back pressed against his chest and awkwardly twisted so that he didn't unintentionally harm the veterinarian. He also discovered that he was breathing so fast that it felt like he were suddenly snapped up high into the atmosphere where the air was thin. His head was beginning to strain from the effort, and he knew his color was fading, his rune flickering madly like a candle trying to stay resilient in the breath of a cruel wind. Gritting his teeth together, he gave another terrible strain of sound, blinking a drop of sweat from where it dropped into his eye, just as Zeke propped his legs between them and the wall and kicked.
He hardly noticed that his other arm had wrapped about his waist, curling itself into a fist around the fabric. He was too busy focusing the last of his dwindling energy into the cushion of ethereal flesh between Zeke's hand and the wall. It was that wedge of space that Eiry provided that allowed Zeke's hand to rip free with most of the skin intact instead of the sheer flaying of the skin that it might have been had he not been there to help. But, at the same time, it was that very same wedge that Eiry had provided that eventually stole away all of Eiry's magical prowess. When Zeke kicked them free, ripping both his and his hand away from the ice, Eiry had hardly enough breath left to even exhale in relief. They were unstuck.
"AAAH!"
Huddled between Zeke's arms, quivering as if he had been running for hours without pause, Eiry gasped like a fish out of water, desperately trying to inflate his lungs. It looked like he had been somehow infused with ice, made pale and made to shiver with the full force of a roaring gale. He felt so weak, so utterly and despairingly weak, that he feared he would just drop into intangibility and eventually fade away. In natural reaction to his lack of strength, the nearby grass and plants that he laid against shriveled, turning brown and choking with death as Eiry absorbed the life from them in a vain attempt to replace the energy that had been stolen away from him, but such little amounts would do him no good. He needed a good stand of trees to kill. So, limp and struggling to draw breath, Eiry stared with red eyes at the earth, not comprehending why the life he absorbed from the grass did nothing to heal his suffocating self.
By all accounts, it looked like he had been chucked out to space, starved and frozen by a void of nothing.
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Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 4:22 pm
That cry from the Sigel stung his ears just as the cold had caused a painful sting throughout the rest of him. Despite his bleeding and struggling to get as far from that damnable wall as possible, Zeke kept Eiry as close as humanly possible, trying to impart some of his own mostly-lost body heat onto his fallen rescuer.
"Hey...Eiry...Are you with me, buddy?" Once Zeke felt snow trying to creep into his underwear, he turned his eyes down to his comrade. Eiry looked...Oh god what had they gotten themselves into? Panic filled Zeke's veins again and actually overran the pain that came from torn flesh and too-cold ice. They had to get out of here. This...This was way over their heads and he had been an idiot to run in like this and put others in danger. But he could beat himself up later over that fact. The vet was shaking from the cold, but a new wave took over - one by the name of Fear - that came up and grew as Zeke turned the Sigel in his arms to face him. Too pale. Eiry was too pale and if Zeke was shaking, the minty Raevan most certainly was. "H-Hold on. H-Hold on Eiry, p-p-please."
Though his chest felt like liquid fire had been poured into his lungs and his joints felt too stiff to even think to bend, Zeke forced himself to his knees. His body cried out in protest and caused the young man to feel heated tears sting the corners of his eyes, but he knew he couldn't rest now. They still weren't safe and wouldn't be until they were well past that thick row of hedge and back in the car. That was the goal - get Anya and Eiry to the car and...and from there would be determined once he was sure his two take-alongs were safe and sound.
"C'mon...C'mon..." Eiry was awkward to carry and the added off-center weight made it harder for the raver to get to his too numb to feel feet. Zeke kiltered to the left as he struggled to stand and then fell right and all the while the snow-covered ice offered zero traction beneath his feet. His knee met hard ground and Zeke uttered a strangled cry, gripping the Sigel closer as he sunk his teeth into his pierced bottom lip. Yes, this had been a very stupid endeavor. He should have rallied up a few others, made more calls, maybe even waited and let the professionals do what they do best but no. He had let his fright cloud his mind and dictate his actions and now he was paying the price for it and putting someone else in danger because of it. What's more, he had left his young, cold susceptible Raevan by herself near a police car!
What an idiot I am...
Once he finally made it to his feet, Zeke wasted no time in shifting Eiry in his arms. While it probably wasn't the best way at the moment, holding Eiry close to his side with the Sigel's arm held in place over his shoulders did help free the vet's movements and make this slightly less awkward. With one arm free, Zeke was able to grab the Sigel's fallen bag as he passed as well as keep some balance - leaving no trace of them behind other than some muddled footprints, skid marks, and perhaps a little blood.
"Once w-we g-g-get th-through this h-hedge, w-we'll b-be home f-f-f-ree." And they were almost there: the wall of long dead plants and the hole Zeke had made breaking through them was right there, waiting to be passed through. And step by horribly protested step, they would get through it.
--
All had been relatively quiet on the "homefront", if you could call sirens, shouting, wailing, rumbling, hissing, spraying, and all other sorts of industrial and rescue sounds quiet. Anastacia was now quite awake - her stupor had lifted as quickly as it had come once the cold had been drained and replaced by the heat of the car she hovered by - and she was quite eagerly looking through what crowd she could see for the man who had brought her here. She was not happy. People surrounded her in a too close for comfort manner, noise assaulted her ears, and twice she had been barked at by insolent, overworked police officers to get away from or off the car she had been lying upon to feed and warm up. The silent, dazed compliance she had been in was long since gone and she wanted answers. Where was she? Why was she here? What time was it, who were these people, what was going on, and where was Zeke? That man...He had a LOT of explaining to do and if he was thinking he could get away with...this...and not expect a demanding glare, he had another thing coming! When he came into view she was not going to hold back, even if she was going to remain near the source of heat that was otherwise keeping her from feeling sick. Until then though, she was stranded and most unwilling to eke out into the crowd and cold. Luckily, she didn't have to wait much longer than she already had.
From the bushes well outside her vision, Zeke and Eiry broke through the mass of leaves and branches and onto the hardtop that was still packed with people. Thanks to the crowd they were not spotted by anyone of authority, but the sudden arrival two pained looking men - and one without a lower half at that - did earn them a lot of stares regardless. Zeke was greatly distracted as he moved, so when what happened, happened, he was very much not prepared.
Though her vision was terrible, the arrival of that fin of bright green and dark purple into the fog was all she needed to know her guardian was nearly to her. She lofted herself high with her back straight in order to give off a commanding 'you will tell me everything right now' presence, tucking the blanket tight around her form while doing so. She raised her chin to add to her demanding air and as the purple and green coloring got closer and closer, Anya slowly moved to the front fender of the police car. Cold nipped at her ribbon, but it wasn't enough to make her back down and the moment Zeke was out of the fog and into the clear, she pounced.
"What's going on? Where are we? Why am I here?" Gone was the soft, confused tone of the Raevan that was treating her guardian with the same care one would take around a bomb, and in its place was the sharp, indignant near-shout of a livid spider queen. Her eyes were only on the man she called her own and the fact Eiry and was there and not in the same state he left in was yet to be recognized. Answers. Now.
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 12:15 am
Breathing had become a difficult task for Eiry, his breath having froze up in his lungs, a feeling all too familiar to the grasp of Zul's ice grip upon his arms, encasing him, drowning him, pulling him under the surface. So without energy, he had barely enough strength to blink let alone lift his head as the veterinarian attempted to lift him up and carry him away from the ice fixtures, his wings dragging limply behind him with frantic sputtering as they attempted to light themselves again. It was like he had fallen through a frozen river, dumping into the cold ice before he could so much as scream, and his body had gone into shock. Zeke was mortal, as he was mortal still, but the vet did not suffer the magical drainage that he experienced from that terrible and hungry cold. It was a monster, ripping every strand of strength from his limbs faster then he could twitch the muscle of his sinew, and Eiry was a Sigel comprised mostly from the wiles of magic. It was most of all he had. Consciousness, though, was still with him, refusing to absolutely collapse within the chattering cold recesses of his skull. He could hear words, Zeke's voice asking him questions that he wasn't sure how to answer, but words all the same. In response, the raevan mumbled and moaned, hardly reacting when the vet slipped, clutched, and adjusted him around his chest like they ice skating partners, he the woman and Zeke the supporting man.
Thankfully, though, the more they pulled away from the building and it's coffin of ice, the more Eiry was able to breathe. Great gasps began heaving between his chest, huge inhales that made his head spin as he looked around at the bleary world blooming back into focus. The cogs of his internal thinking, slowly melting free to spin themselves wildly back into motion, language filtering back into his tongue at the elementary level but language all the same. With his hair wild upon his crown, and his eyes dropping beneath their lids, Eiry focused his growing consciousness to try and latch onto Zeke and his warmth, his fingers digging into the man's clothes and his new found strength, increasing with every step away from the cold building, focusing into the caliber of his shiver. Soon enough, the ghost Sigel was trembling with the strength of a convulsing individual, his teeth chattering, and his pointed ears pulled back in a hurt taper. The tips of his fingers were glistening and bright red, looking almost like frozen delicacies, a tinge of purple seeping into his fingertips, and the more he tried to curl them into Zeke's clothes, the more it hurt to do so.
"B-b-bitter n**..." the frei managed to mumble, probably making it more difficult for Zeke to walk as he strained to wiggle himself against his front, "...t-that J-jack Frost has..." He wanted heat, needed it. A ghost Sigel like he was used to cold, the cold of death, but that was more an absence of feeling or care for temperature for weather, not a direct deterrent from cold itself. Like any person was he, half a person at any rate, but a person nonetheless, was subject to the effects of winter's frost. He peeled his red eyes open, thankfully showing consciousness in enough levels that his immediate mortality was not called into question.
"Z-zeke...my d-digits no l-longer...f-feel...the b-bite..." he said in pointed distress, bothered by this as, below him, his tummy gave a terrible rumble, aching for nutrition in any kind to support his dwindling colors and energy. He looked very much the part of his soul, pale and withered away, shrinking from life with a turn towards death, as his head flopped about his high tucked collar and wrapped cravat.
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Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2012 8:36 pm
The trek had been arduous even if short and when Anastacia started up her angry tirade, Zeke felt as if more weight had piled upon his person. The vet sagged as the questions hit his ears and he turned his eyes to the angered Widow.
"Ah-Anya...L-Let me explain i-in the c-c-car..."
"No! Answer me right now!" Despite the blatant condition of the two males before her, the Frei seemed oblivious to their states. The cold and the blanket she had curled around her coat-covered shoulders kept her from snapping her wings and crown wide, but the look on her face said enough. She wanted answers and she wanted them now.
Zeke had to implore her. Feeling Eiry digging into his coat, the vet held the Sigel as close as he could and knew he had to get the lot of them into the warmth his car provided. Once they were there, she could demand answers from him until her face turned blue and he would answer her to a matching scale. But for now? No. They needed to get out of the cold right now. Eiry was thankfully conscious, but for how long in this weather after what just happened he didn't want to say nor risk.
"I-In the car." Zeke repeated, widening his stinging eyes to plead with the queen. "L-Let's get b-back to the c-car f-f-first an-and then y-you'll get an-answers. I-It's too cold, Anya. P-Please."
Standing still like this, Zeke could feel himself shaking all over. His hands, his knees, his legs, even his cheeks tingled just beneath the surface of his cold-reddened skin. He had to sit down; he needed to.
The cold started to work the queen, but she was too argumentative and indignant to care at the moment. As the vet again denied her, she lofted to a higher height, and puffed her cheeks out like a child in the first throes of a tantrum. How dare he? He had to explain and NOW. Not later. Not soon. NOW.
"I said--"
Eiry's distressed tone was not missed by either of them, but Zeke reacted first and greatest to it. Heaving the Sigel to adjust him on his shoulder, Zeke shot his free hand out and gripped the spider queen's twice covered shoulder. The puffed cheeks look deflated into a shocked gasp from Anastacia as her man wheeled her around and a cry left her lips as she attempted to wrench out of it but was met with only a tighter grip.
"What are you doing? Let go of me Zeke! I said let go!"
He hated to do this to her, he really did, but right now they all had to get away from the iced over Lab. Anastacia struggled and spat at him for his grip and growing more sluggish by the second, she did succeed in freeing herself from him. She did not hit or slap him for his second breach of space today, but - out in the cold and closer to the Aston Martin than the police car - she had no choice but to hiss an angered note at him before slipping off to the vet's vehicle, tightening her blanket around her being again.
Zeke sighed as the door slammed behind her, but coughed right after. With the car in reach, the vet mustered his strength and made it to the driver's door. The door felt heavy and his shoulder was shouting with soreness as he pulled it open, but he managed it. Once it was, he made sure to put Eiry in first before nudging the Sigel into the passenger seat so he could take up the one behind the wheel. The door was grabbed again and shut, then the keys were found, fumbled with, and slipped into the ignition. With a turn the car's engine roared to life and with it heat came pouring out the vents.
"Ahh..." Zeke sighed, flopping back against his seat and lidding his eyes. Warmth had never felt so good. And though it did, the vet forced himself to open his eyes and tend to the Sigel. He could feel stinging tears on his palms, but those were nothing compared to what Eiry had to have gone through. "Eiry...You okay?"
There was a mute glare coming from the backseat, but Zeke could only think that Anya's anger would help heat the car up all the faster.
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Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2012 11:20 pm
With his body pushing into Zeke's, Eiry didn't make it any easier for the man to return to the car. He still couldn't comprehend that they were moving, not until his blood shot eyes stared at the travelling ground beneath him and he recognized the motion as movement. It was hard for his mind to pick itself back together in his weary haze, his attention shifting quickly, searching for something that wasn't there. The entire short trip back to the car was spent searching vainly for something to eat, but there was nothing for him to see. They were in a parking lot, what kind of vegetation did he expect? He gulped, swallowing his own returning spit in an effort to fill that hungry part of him, and focused instead on bringing himself up to a float of his own. He was slowly gaining more and more control, shaking himself free of sleep's many armed and desperate clutch, the drawings and drownings of sleep.
Eiry had only barely listened to the argument being posed by the younger frei, glancing to her tiredly, unwilling to give her the answers she demanded simply because her manners were unbecoming for a woman and unkind. It wasn't like he could give her answers anyways, despite his itch to be of service, to be a gentleman. He couldn't waste his last precious gathering energy on answering the woman, not when he was so close to the car, not when he needed to use that energy helping Zeke carry him. With his wings struggling to sputter to life, growing stronger still with every breath, every step that they took away from the dreadful magic eating ice, Eiry opened them, using them to guide himself to the car and in through the cramped space. He crawled across the seats and deposited himself into a curl in the co-pilot seat, his breath wheezing out of him in strong puffs as he waited for the soon coming blast of warm air. Thankfully, that was what he needed, besides a dead forest of course. With the warm air blowing upon him, he melted into the seat, growing more and more relaxed, his muscles returning to him along with his strength.
Though, there still remained a weakness within him. It was the weakness that followed after failure, the knowledge of one's failure and its heavy weight upon Eiry's shoulders. He came to the Lab with Zeke hoping that he could be of help, that he could perhaps save those who remained trapped within, and he hadn't even been able to get through the first layer of ice, and in doing so, endangered not only himself but Zeke as well. With his gut growing heavy with remorse, the Ghost Sigel looked up with great sadness at the man who leaned over him, a question in his mouth.
Eiry nodded to the man, trying to promise his health and safety. "Much better am I to remain conscience and strong enough to whittle you a sentence from these garbled words and words in my head," said Eiry with a somber pinch to his brows, "But I must waste my energy on this, good sir: An apology married with my extreme thanks and gratitude, for I fear I have caused you harm when harm there shouldn't be. I am weak, but made weaker still for guilt. It pains me to see the flinch on your lips, the ginger on your finger tips. I am every bit the apology."
Eiry gave a heavy sigh then, sinking deeper into his ball on the seat. "I have failed and thus made you a failure as well."
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 9:55 am
Seeing the Sigel curled up in the passenger seat like that tugged at Zeke's conscience. Unwittingly, he felt the same as Eiry: horrible for not thinking things through and rushing in like the unprepared white knight he had as well as guilty for getting not one, but two Raevans tangled up in this. Eiry was the one who was worse off, certainly, but he had left his Frei floating next to a police car while he attempted to rescue those trapped inside the ice castle. If they hadn't returned - and the thought struck him, what if it had just been him and he hadn't had Eiry there to get him out? - what would have happened to Anastacia? Thinking that, the vet raised one numb but burning hand to his forehead and inwardly grumbled at himself.
Stupid. Stupid stupid stupid.
He would have gone on beating himself up in that manner had Eiry not started to speak. Zeke caught the nod and felt a tiny surge of relief at that, which grew as the Sigel's Shakespearean prose continued. Although his hands were spotty with blood, the vet reached out and took the minty Raevan's hand in his own and gave it a small squeeze, smiling - albeit just barely - to tell the other male that he too was okay and would be fine. However, when Eiry spoke an apology, that little expression faltered and died on his face and Zeke was feeling confused.
"Apologize?" He said, releasing the Sigel's hand from his own too-hot one to instead take hold of Eiry's arm. "Don't apologize for anything. Coming out here was my idea and it's my fault we're like this 'cause I wasn't smart enough to settle down and think this through."
From the backseat, Anastacia was watching the exchange between the two men. Her eyes were trained on her fellow Raevan but only for the fact that he was speaking in...well she couldn't begin to describe what that was. It wasn't how people talked at any rate. When her guardian spoke of how this sudden expedition was his idea, the spider queen shifted her gaze and rested all six eyes on the vet, frowning deeply. So this was all his doing? That made sense; he was full of dumb ideas that she didn't agree with.
Hmph. She was still full of questions, but at least one of the main ones had been answered without her demanding it again. The ones that remained continued to burn in her throat and it wasn't long after Zeke's voiced faded that one came out of her. "But why am I here?"
The terse, clipped tone of the queen who was still somehow trying to remain civil in her anger made her guardian sigh. It wasn't out of dread for having to answer, but rather a relaxed sound. This was both for the idea that she wasn't going to sit back there and stew and for the odd notion that her voice was something of a comfort now.
"Because you're still too young for me to let you stay home alone." The vet inclined his head against his seat, looking at his Frei on an angle. Her displeased face made him smile as he replied, but that only made her scowl.
"I'm old enough."
She muttered her words like a scorned child would after a tantrum got them nowhere and rested back against the seat. To Zeke, it looked like she was sulking and he had to chuckle a little...even though that led to him coughing with a cold-caused sore throat. She might have thought so, and while she was rather mature, he wasn't quite yet ready for the spider queen to take such a big step. Maybe next year, but not now, even if leaving her home alone would have been a smarter alternative to dragging her off with him.
His chuckling was not something Anastacia wanted to hear, so she only huffed more in her area behind the two males. Like a child with a tantrum, she was forming a grudge against her man, but unlike that child, hers was almost guaranteed to last longer. Unfairly if it were known, she also struck marks against the odd-speaking green Raevan for going along with Zeke's harebrained idea. He could have put a stop to it before it began, but didn't. Clearly he was as dumb as her guardian and the way he talked wasn't winning any favors with her either.
Morons...
With the spider queen sulking and quiet again, Zeke looked back to Eiry. Shifting in his seat, the Sigel's since forgotten bag slumped into the raver's lap from his arms, making him jump before he saw what it was. Pulling it off his arm and into his lap, the vet opened it before holding it out to the older Raevan, thinking there was something of use to the Sigel in this time of wound licking after unprepared bravery.
"Here..." Gripping the bag with one hand, the vet reached in front of the Sigel for the glove compartment and the first aid kit tucked inside. His hands were on fire thanks to the heat interacting with his frigid skin but that didn't prevent blood from rising, pooling, and in some cases dribbling down his palms and smearing where he touched.
s**t that was dumb. Zeke got the kit out and couldn't help but look at the iced over Lab again as he pulled it to himself. Frowning, he shook his head and set about opening the case and cleaning his stinging hands up. What would they do next? Well for right now it would be tending to himself and the Sigel as well as heating all the way up. From there...Zeke didn't have much of a clue just yet.
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