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 Posted: Sat Dec 21, 2013 9:28 pm
Who: Claire and Zeke
When: December 22nd; around 10am
Where: Lab 305
Weather: Cold but clear, there's a healthy dumping of snow on the ground from the night before
"Ah s**t."
The tinkling sound of glass shattering against linoleum rang out over the holly jolly Christmas music streaming from the radio perched on Zeke's desk in the lobby. The vet peered down at the scattered bits of light blue and crisp white, a small frown creasing his face as he gingerly stepped down from the step ladder he had been using to pluck a few extra ornaments from the silver garland they had been hung on. He hoped there was another one like it tucked somewhere in the lobby - the pretty glass trinket looked like something Anya might have liked to have.
It was still three days till Christmas but with last night's party over and done with a portion of the glitz and glamor had to be taken down, even though Zeke had offered protest to that. It wasn't yet Christmas after all, he had said, surely the all lights, ornaments, and tinsel could stay up till the day after! He had liked the look, but no, most of it was party-related and thus had to be packaged back up for next year. On the plus side of this, Zeke was still allowed to keep up a seasonal amount of Christmas dressing and even better, had gotten permission to take some of the stuff home if he really wanted it. The vet did like the ornaments and the lights of course, but his inclination for the stuff littering the Lab wasn't for himself. Instead he had it in mind to give some to Anastacia, thinking the spider queen might like some lights or crystalline several-pointed star ornaments to decorate her new bedroom with when they moved. When he had broached that topic with the Virus femme the night before, she had replied favorably to the idea. She hadn't wanted to attend the party the Lab had hosted, but Zeke had brought her home a gorgeously wrapped present and a single silver bauble as favors like he had promised. He told her there was more where that had come from and that she was free to take home what she liked, but despite her desire for such things she was still not ready to go anywhere near the Lab and was perhaps suspicious of her Guardian wanting to bring her there for any reason at all. He couldn't blame her on the latter if it was so; he had offered to take her to see Alex for a check up many times over since the shitstorm that had occurred in July. She had rebuffed him every single time and he could see why she would not trust his words in regards to the Lab and going there because of it. What's more, Zeke knew his relationship with the Widow hadn't exactly blossomed in the weeks and months since the botched rescue mission at Kahadlok. Despite the hurt he felt telling himself that, it did make sense. He'd have to earn her trust back and keeping his promises was the best way to go about it. Baby steps, and bringing her home a big box of ornaments was a good one on the long road to recovery.
Stepping over the wreckage of the fallen ornament, Zeke walked over to his desk to set down the four baubles he held before grabbing hold of the broom and its dustpan. He returned to the scene of the crime and started to sweep up the glittering shards, singing along to Jingle Bell Rock as it came on after White Christmas. His voice carried through the lobby - he was alone on this Sunday morning and with the Yuletide spirit upon him he had to fill the Lab's decorated hall with as much caroling and good cheer as he had pent up within him. Zeke being Zeke, he had a lot to give and soon after started to sway in time with the music as bits and pieces of ornament were whisked into the pan.
"Now the jingle hop has begun..."
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Posted: Sat Dec 21, 2013 10:06 pm
Vapor puffed between Claire's lips as she half-walked, half-jogged down the sidewalk. Inwardly she cursed herself for the decision to wear leggings rather than jeans but she felt an impulse to look more presentable, and jeans waffled into casual more than she liked. And if this is what her mother had said it was two days ago when shoving an ad and the care of her Russian wolfhound Misha into her hands before heading out the door on her "girls' weekend," then Claire wanted to present the most put-together image she could muster.
Even if, inside, she was quaking just the slightest at the idea of an adoption agency.
"Misha, heel," she called to the dog tugging the leash in her hand, although he did not obey and continued to pull her forward. The small clutch of people walking around the sidewalk excited him, they were so different from the other people in his neighborhood! The woman holding his leash groaned and tugged a little more firmly, this time coercing the dog to slow down and look at her expectantly. Her gloved hand fished the neatly-folded ad out of her pocket and struggled to unwrap it alone, shaking it in the morning air to open it fully.
"Lab 305... Lab 305.." Claire's pale eyes squinted at the name and then up hopefully towards the buildings. The word "adoption" once again crossed her mind and her heart squeezed in her chest. She had told herself time and time again that she would wait, now was not the time, but it seemed her mother had other ideas. All the same, it never hurt to consider one's options.
She found the corresponding address more quickly than what she was prepared for. Her throat dried and swallowing seemed impossible. Stiff fingers tightened on the ad paper, and she folded it haphazardly and stuffed it back into her pocket, all the while trying to calm her nerves. It's okay, just a Q & A session, she reminded herself, no need to get so uptight. Claire shook her head to quell her anxieties, which only succeeded in loosening some of the strands of her nicely tied bun, and reached for the handle. The door pulled back and Misha scrambled to run inside, and she pulled out of her stupor and blocked him from entering with her body. How could she forget that not all places allow dogs?
And so there she stood for the moment, blocking her mother's whining dog from entering the reception area while standing half in and half out of the doorway.
"Hello.. ?" she called tentatively. Misha whined again and she turned her head awkwardly against the doorframe to look at him. He presented a pitiful image with his best doe eyes and soft whine, and she didn't want to leave him out in the cold, although his breed was bred to deal with cold conditions. The sound of Christmas music drifted from the lobby, and over them she could make out a rather pleasant voice joining his own to the song, which enticed her to turn her attention back inside. From what she could see of the lobby, it was nicely decorated for the impending holidays, and another moment's glance around the room revealed the shock of green and purple hair attached to the young man behind the desk that she had yet to notice until now. It seemed he was busy with cleaning up, given the presence of the broom and dustpan - perhaps he was the receptionist, or another person who worked here?
"Ah -- hello!" Claire called again, and Misha tried to take the opportunity to nudge behind her legs into the lobby, but she pushed him back. "I'm sorry, I just -- I didn't expect to have him with me and I'm not sure if you allow dogs -- oof, Misha, down." Misha pressed again and once again she remained unmoved, much to the dog's displeasure. "This is the Lab 305, yes? My mother gave me an ad for here."
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Friendly Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat Dec 21, 2013 10:37 pm
The chime over the door was masked by the Christmas carols as Zeke had turned the volume up to really get the spirit of the season flowing. By the time he had all the glass bits he could see swept up and emptied into the trashcan under his desk, the veterinarian was fully grooving out, belting out the last lines of his favorite carol as he tapped the dustpan against the lip of the grey, metal can in time with the final beats. His ponytail swung to and fro between his shoulders as Zeke bipped and bopped but his back was to the door and as such he did not see Claire nor her four-legged companion until well after the broom and pan had been set down and Silver Bells started up.
"Silver bells...Silver bells..." The lyrics slid easily into humming as Zeke pushed the trash can back under his desk with his foot. In doing so he pivoted on the ball of his right foot, spinning right around with exiting his work area in mind. Instead he froze; his left foot in the air, his eyes on someone who had not been there before, and a momentary flush of color rising in his cheeks from shock before a laugh left him. He pawed at the radio with his right hand, finding the volume wheel after two slapdash brushes and turning the music from overbearing down to silence.
"Hi!" Despite being caught in the midst of what some might consider an embarrassing moment, Zeke was hardly bothered by that fact. In the presence of company one of his famously sunny grins lit up his pierced features and it reached his light brown eyes in a matter of seconds. His dangling foot was lowered and Zeke was out from behind the desk in a flash, peering curiously at a new face - and a dog who was trying so hard to push his or her way inside. The sight of the big borzoi only made Zeke beam all the more. "Bring him on in! Just be careful, I dropped an ornament over where that step ladder is and there might be some pieces I missed." He pointed to the spot he spoke of then swept his hand around to gesture the woman inside. Even from here the cold of mid-December could be felt and being in a t-shirt, Zeke couldn't help but shiver. When Claire and her pretty sighthound were in and the door was once more shut behind them, Zeke cleared the distance and offered the woman his hand for a firm shake.
"Yeah you're in the right place! Welcome to the Lab! My name's Zeke, what can I help you with today?" Her words about the ad did not go unnoticed and in fact the raver honed in on them in particular. If she was responding to the call for applicants in the Raevan project, then his morning was about to get a lot more interesting!
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Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2013 5:58 pm
The sight of such Christmas spirit eased a bit of Claire's anxiety, and as Zeke waved them in with warning about the broken ornament, she nodded and opened the door a little wider. Misha's paws scrambled for purchase, claws clicking on the tiles as he barreled in excitedly. "Misha, heel!" She tugged on the lead again when she shut the door and approached, wrapping it a couple times around her hand to keep him from jumping all over the poor lab assistant. "He's a people dog, don't mind him," she laughed, and held her free hand out to grasp his when offered. "Claire, Claire Holmes." Misha nosed at Zeke's leg and wagged his long tail happily as he waited to be noticed.
The introductions quickly slid into business, and Claire chewed her lower lip thoughtfully. "Well.. my mother's idea, to be honest." She waved a hand as though to indicate an invisible mother figure next to her, before realizing how silly she likely looked and lowered it. "She found your ad by chance and thought it would be something of interest, although she didn't know much about it other than -" her heart fluttered, "- adoption?" Not that she had much background in what adoption agencies did or did not look like (aside from fleeting images depicted in movies, which was not the best basis for such ideas), but this did not strike her as much of an adoption agency, but something different. Still, best to be sure. "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I'm not very familiar with your company, but I'd like to know more." There was no need to make a decision at this point; gathering information right now was what was key, and she and Aaron could sit down and discuss her findings. For the moment, she smiled genially at Zeke and nodded. "Please tell me about your program. I saw something about applications? Although 'Raevan' is a term I haven't come across before." It was the word that had caught her attention; perhaps that was the just the name of the particular adoption program?
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Friendly Conversationalist
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Posted: Wed Dec 25, 2013 7:13 pm
"That's okay," Zeke said of the dog and his exuberance, to which he knelt down to give the big borzoi proper petting and a hearty ruffling of his neck after the handshake, "I'm a dog people." He grinned up at the woman before returning to his feet, continuing to scratch Misha behind the ears. "It's nice to meet you, Claire."
The woman was quick to dive into the topic of the Lab at hand, which was - frankly - rather startling. It was rare that they got a person fresh off the streets who wanted to run right into the thick of things. Usually there was idly chitchat; the standard 'how are you todays', the invitation to sit down, perhaps even have a drink procured - that sort of thing. To head right in...Well it was different, but Zeke's smile didn't falter despite it. He rather liked the odd curve ball. When Claire was done with her storm of words the vet laughed open and full and gestured to the desk he had just been behind.
"Well I'll be happy to explain everything to you for sure! Come take a seat over here with me and I'll answer everything you just said and more!"
With a bounce in his step Zeke led the way, his mind a whirl of excitement at this pleasant interruption and the words the woman with the charming dog had thrown at him. He knew the newspaper ad she spoke of and knew for all intents and purposes it was rather vague about what went on at the Lab and just what the 'program' actually was. The way she said the word 'adoption' really stuck out to him and as he gestured to the seats available to her, Zeke had to wonder. He didn't show this on his face however, and instead of seating when behind his desk proper, the vet remained standing.
"Would you like something to drink? I've got bottled water, soda, and I think some juice too if you'd like." He pulled the radio off the desk and cleared the ornaments too. Between him and Claire there was nothing but a cup of pens, some general office necessities like sticky notes and a stapler, and a rubber bottomed mat. The lobby around the pair was decorated in striking pale blues, whites, and creams for Christmas - here and there touched with gold - but Zeke's desk was the odd man out, so to speak, with its garish fluorescent colors of all shades and hues mingling with the grey steel of metal and the odd black, off white, and dark grey strewn throughout. "I could also get some coffee or hot tea if you'd prefer something warm."
If he was anything at work, it was hospitable to those who came through Lab's doors, be they Guardian or curious passerby or - in this case - someone looking to find out more from a newspaper advertisement. He waited for her answer then acted appropriately, sitting down only when that topic at hand had been settled.
"Okay, so." Zeke adjusted himself in his seat, bringing the wheeled computer chair close to the desk while perching his rear on the edge of it. The raver put his hands on the desk - palms up, fingers splayed out to the woman before him - and took a breath. "I guess I should start off by saying that the Lab is kind of an adoption agency, but also kind of not." He smiled a touch sheepishly, hoping he hadn't dashed the woman's expectations or hopes against the rocks with it, but sure he had confused her by that remark. "The program you read about is actually a scientific one and the applications referred to in the ad is our way of selecting the right people to participate. The Raevans you read about are a product of that science program and you would become the caretaker of one - should you apply."
He paused there and let that sink in. She had thrown him a curve ball and he had thrown one right back at her, though his was one to knock her right out of the park. This was business as usual when he got right down to it and after three plus years Zeke was a pro. He didn't stop smiling. In fact, his smile grew wider. "I bet I can guess what your next question will be."
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Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2014 9:50 am
"Thank you," Claire replied, and she followed him to the desk. She tucked her jacket under her as she sat, and Misha padded along happily, flopping himself at her feet in front of the desk.
"Hot tea, if it isn't too much trouble." Claire returned Zeke's smile and offer with her own reply. The outside weather was brisk, and, granted, while she felt the chill moreso in her legs, a steamy cup of tea would help the feeling come back to her cheeks. While he was away preparing the drink, she hummed tunelessly and took another look around the office. It was clean, very clean, and the overall vibe of a laboratory became even more prominent than before. Yes, it was silly to think this was what an adoption agency would look like.. although she surely was no expert on that. She paused to scratch Misha behind the ears while she waited, and when the man returned she accepted the cup gratefully. "Thank you." She took the mug in both hands and breathed in the warmth before taking a sip. A moment passed while Zeke adjusted himself and set about explaining.
To hear that this was not the kind of adoption agency she (or her mother) had initially thought... it stirred strange feelings in her chest. Overall there was a seeping feeling of relief, but there was also a slight tinge to that wave.. was it disappointment? No matter. Claire held her smile - as friendly as Zeke seemed, he did not have to play audience to her personal problems. Instead she took another sip of tea and replied, "Mmmn.. how so?"
Zeke had countered her straightforward manner with a bit of elusiveness. She liked a bit of a challenge. And even as he explained about the Lab and these Raevans only served to confuse her further. As he finished his explanation and sat back, looking rather proud of himself (so it seemed to her), she nodded slowly and mused over the information he had just given her.
"Interesting," she replied at length, and then with her smile returning, "I suppose the correct question would be if I could see the Raevans. What do they look like? How do they act?" The adoption part of the ad seemed to have changed somewhere down the line from "human children" to some amalgation of "pet" and "science experiment," however that went. Perhaps if she were to get a better look at what was being discussed, she might have a better idea. Now, whereas she felt apprehensive before, she felt very interested. Very interested. "How are these Raevans.." she fished for an appropriate term, "Born? Created?"
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Friendly Conversationalist
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Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2014 8:57 am
It would become apparent quickly that Zeke was the sort of man who's smile knew no limits. As Claire questioned him, his face only continued to light up.
"Well, I was actually thinking your question would be 'are you crazy?' but I like yours better." He chuckled throatily, nodding to start with then immediately pausing to purse his pierced lips and frown just a touch. By the look on his face, he was having an 'I wonder...' sort of moment but after a moment or two the cheery face returned. When it did, the vet shifted his posture to dig into the left pocket of his jeans. He procured a rather new looking phone, held up his right finger for a moment of the woman's time, and started fiddling with the thing. Within no time at all he had the phone slid across the desk with a photo on its screen.
"This is Anastacia." There was fatherly pride in his voice now as well as the barest touch of something else, a sadness perhaps. The picture Claire was looking at showed a light skinned female with long, light purple hair. She probably would not have been out of place for Gaia, had she not had some rather peculiar features. Over the eyes that matched her hair color were four gem-like circles on her brow. Encircling her head and face were eight long, cruel-looking spines of some shiny black material with two smaller ones at the forefront. Wings protruded from her back and they looked similar to their higher placed cousins, albeit much larger and graced with spider webs just before the sharp points at the ends. If that wasn't odd enough, her most outlandish features had to be her lack of a torso below her bust, a purple cloud with a strange shape within it, and a jagged and equally sharp-looking ribbon that curled down the hollow space where a body should be. The woman in the photo was clad in all black and looked rather unhappy to be photographed. She was frowning at the camera with two knitting needles and a work in progress in her hands. "She's my Raevan."
Knowing Anya's striking figure might take a few to sink in, Zeke let Claire handle the phone for as long as she wanted. Only when she passed it back over did the veterinarian continue.
"Raevans are...unique." He chuckled again. "They are beings made up of a blend of science and magic with two key things needed for their creation - a soul, and what we call a Fel Essence." There would probably be no mistaking what Claire's question would be next, certainly, but he'd let her ask it first. "Anya there is just one of over thirty in existence, and she is as different from the others as you and I are from each other or someone walking down the street."
He pictured a few of them in his head as he spoke, sitting back just a little in his seat so as not to crowd his guest. Zul, Cruz, Ethiriel, Revontulet, Eiry, Lucia, Rivener...Certainly some of them had similar looks about them - colors or size generally - but their make ups were wholly one hundred percent their own. There wouldn't ever be another Cesc or Iorek and most certainly never another Anastacia.
"Every Raevan is different. Like humans, they have their own personalities, likes and dislikes, hopes, dreams, aspirations, etc etc. They're really no different from humans besides how they're created, the body thing, and the fact they each have special abilities they're born with because of what makes them up. If you were to become a guardian, you would be taking care of a person like Anya, though all signs point to them being a helluva lot different than her in many ways."
He smiled again, and let his words hang in the air. If she didn't wish him a good day and walk out that door again after that information dump, he'd consider this first meeting quite the success already.
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Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 2:18 pm
The barrage of information was certainly quite a bit for Claire to take in, and all she could do at the moment was readjust her sitting position and nod slowly, trying to digest it all. She leaned over the table when Zeke pushed the phone towards her and introduced the subject of the picture as his own Raevan, and her own eyes widened. The picture she had been assembling in her head at the basic information given through the ad and the moments before now slowly dissolved and took form in Zeke's Anastacia. Her spider-like features (what was that on her forehead - eyes perhaps?) and her unhappy scowl at being caught on camera, so much less like a pet than she had initially imagined. The woman's gaze shifted to the borzoi resting on the floor before returning to the phone, and she leaned back into the chair, cradling the cup of hot tea in her hands.
Less like a pet, and more like adopting a child - although, as Zeke continued on explaining about the magical and scientific properties of the Raevans and supposed abilities from their biological make-up, a child with special powers. And the fact that each is unique in its make-up and appearance followed that assumption.
"It does seem more in the vein of adopting a child - a very unique child though." Claire nodded thoughtfully and smiled at Zeke. "Their 'abilities' that they have come from what makes them? Their.. 'essence,' you said? And soul?" She paused and took another sip of her tea. There was so much to take in here and she was doing her best to commit it all to memory, to tell her mother when she was certain she had everything straight. "I am rather curious about those, but I'm also curious about a more.. personal? Perspective, I should say. " At this she leaned across the table. "You're a Raevan's guardian... may I call her Anya as well, if that isn't too personal? What is it like to be Anya's guardian, for you?" Inwardly she was hungry to hear of the personal experiences - the trials, the joys, the quirks. The joys of parenthood, she supposed.
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Friendly Conversationalist
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Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2014 12:37 pm
Zeke didn't miss a beat so long as there was a question to answer.
"You got it. There's a bit of magic and science that go into them, but the two main things that you need to make any Raevan are the Essence and a Soul." He took a breath to ready himself for the deluge of information to come. "A Soul is as it sounds, a soul of something else be it animal, plant, or mineral, so long as it is not human or man-made or been tampered with by humans. An Essence is more complex and you're probably gonna look at me like I have two heads but bear with me here. Essences are things in nature that...really shouldn't exist but do anyway. I'm talking things like fire that doesn't go out, shadows that exist though there's nothing to cast them, smoke that lingers even after the fire has gone out...stuff like that." The veterinarian tapped his phone with his left index finger, the action to draw attention to the photo rather than idle movements.
"Take Anya for example. Her soul is a black widow spider, though I'm sure you can see that for yourself." He chuckled. Anya's soul was a dead give away even if the red hourglass on her back was covered up. "Her Fel Essence was - is - called the Self-Replicating Virus." His index finger was held up and Zeke leaned into the table, always ready to impart some of the microbiology he knew well. "Every day viruses cannot reproduce without host cells. When you're sick with a viral illness you are, in part, helping the virus to reproduce as it infects your system. Anya's virus, however, doesn't need host cells. It - or they, I guess I should say - reproduce asexually instead." When he had seen the remains of the Fel Virus after the outbreak it had caused, the vial it had been it had still been filled substantially with the Essence. Even though Dr. Kyou and Alex had destroyed dizzying numbers of viral pathogens, there had still been more than enough to make the little buggers visible as a purple cloud. It was possible they were still reproducing up until they were used in part to make Anya and then locked away by Kyou's magic.
When Claire leaned across the table and asked a question Zeke had never been asked before, the vet had to pause for a moment's time to process. Soon after his smile returned and he leaned back into his seat to contemplate just how to respond.
"You can call her Anya, sure. She definitely doesn't mind." The vet chuckled. "You know you're the first person to ask me that? About what it's like to be a Guardian, I mean." Zeke rubbed his bearded chin offhandedly, smiling at Claire all the while. "I guess the way to put it is...It's a trip. When it comes to personality, I'm not gonna lie and say we aren't like night and day." After the jungle and Cesc's visit last month, Zeke had seen a noticeable change in his Frei's demeanor. The former for the worst, the latter working towards the better. Anya still had off days, but he had noticed a decrease in the frequency and a more positive outlook from the Frei even only after one month. It gave him hope but even more importantly, it gave her hope too.
"She's the quiet type, y'know? And me...well I don't think I have to explain how I am." He laughed openly and airily at that, gesturing to his pierced face and brightly colored hair as if that would explain his personality away alone. When he dropped his hand Zeke leaned back toward the table, crossing his arms atop it and resting on them. His expression noticeably softened as he continued. "We have our ups and downs and there's challenges for sure. But you know what? At the end of the day, she's my daughter. Being a Guardian is like being a parent and even though we have our differences, I love Anya with all my heart no matter what. There's bumps in the road and things might not go so smoothly all the time but it's okay. It's a learning experience. Well...at least, that's how I see it."
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Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 10:23 pm
"Honestly?" Claire was surprised that nobody had asked this before her, but she merely smiled and leaned back into the chair as Zeke put careful thought into her question. She closed her eyes over her cup of tea and nodded. Even if she had not been paying attention to the words in specific that he was using, his tone was enough to carry what she wanted to hear. He loved his Raevan the way most parents loved a child; her brother and sister-in-law fondly spoke of their children's accomplishments over the phone in much the same manner. This made it all the more surprising to the woman that nobody had thought to ask this before - did nobody else feel this way about their Raevan?
As Zeke finished, Claire took the last draw from her mug and set it on the desk. "That's exactly what I was looking for, thank you. If I wasn't already considering before, I think you would have sold it for me with that answer." She laughed and tucked a few loose strands of hair behind her ear. "But seriously, I think it's wonderful that you feel so strongly. That's what I'm looking for. If it's anything like parenthood, I would like to try it -- special powers, magic, science and all." She had been a little more openly honest in her reply than she had intended, and she surprised herself by it, her eyebrows jerking upward slightly as she realized what she had just said. Rather than dwell on it, she shook it off and smiled. "Is there any opportunity to meet a Raevan sometime? I would love to learn more. It's unfortunate I missed your Christmas party but when you're new in town, that's to be expected I suppose." Claire reached down to scratch the dozing Misha behind the ears.
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Friendly Conversationalist
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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2014 11:39 am
"Hand to god!" Zeke raised his left hand and put his right over his heart, beaming at the woman across from him.
To hear Claire speak so positively after his own speech about Guardianship for him, the vet felt a buzz of delight and excitement. It was a heady feeling and one that left a warm tingle from his toes to the tips of his mohawk. His smile was hard to contain in general, but right now he didn't even try to suppress that happiness from shining through.
"I'm really glad to hear it!" The hand he had placed over his heart was gestured toward an unseen drawer in his desk. "Before you leave today I'll make sure to give you an application. You can take it home and read it over before filling it out and returning it to us, unless..." Here the vet cocked his head, eyes twinkling. "You'd rather do that now?"
Her question made him laugh again, the sound light.
"It's funny, it seems like whenever anyone signs on to be a Guardian Raevans just kind of fall out of the woodwork!" He turned toward his computer, opening up the calendar to see if anything was planned for New Years. "I wish Anya was here so you could meet her. We don't have any plans for a New Years party..." The vet sucked idly on his lip ring, humming a note in the back of his throat as he looked at the screen. The only Raevans on premise would be Laz (and even then Zeke wasn't sure he was actually here right now) and...
"The only Raevans I know are here are the ones currently still developing in their tanks." He smiled apologetically, though with touches of amusement all the same especially with what came next. "Unfortunately they aren't much for conversation, being en utero and all."
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Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2015 5:19 pm
"That's a shame, but I suppose that's also to be expected when you come by unannounced." Claire smiled and clasped her hands together over her knee. "I'm sure there will be plenty more opportunities, keep me on the short list for when those happen, if you please!" In all honesty, Claire had not felt this excited in a long time. The past year had been a tumultuous one, full of heartaches, moves, visits to the hospital, and a general listlessness about life. Once her mother had nudged her in the direction of the Lab, even if it was not the most informed decision, it lit a spark of hope in her heart that maybe she, too, could finally be a mother.
The offer of signing the paperwork hung before her, and she knew the responsible thing would be to take the paperwork home, discuss everything fully with Aaron, before making any decisions. But she also knew her own indecisiveness, especially with how she had been as of late. There would probably be a wait, plenty of time to get her husband properly introduced to the program and show him her enthusiasm for it. They both wanted parenthood, and now the opportunity was staring them in the face, and far be it from her to let it slip away in a moment of indecisiveness.
"As for the paperwork.. if you have it handy, I'll put in my application now." Claire's smile blossomed again, the excitement of the sudden decision coursing through her veins with every beat of her heart.
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Friendly Conversationalist
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Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2015 12:23 pm
"Oh definitely more! We try for at least one party a year, sometimes two if we're lucky!" Summer would be the one if anything and that was always open to the public, list or no list. Regardless, he would be sure to take Claire's info down and add her to it before she left. Far be it from him to deny someone so interested (and interesting!) a chance to hobnob with Raevans, their Guardians, and other potential hopefuls.
But then again, he could do it after she left, especially when the blonde asked him for the application with a smile he had to match.
"Sure thing!" A drawer on his desk was popped open and a stapled set of papers was procured then set down in front of Claire. It was several pages in length and a lot of it was legal talk. In between the passages about Guardian responsibility, expectations therein, and how the person reading it must submit to a background check before being considered there were plenty of blank lines for names and the corresponding date.
Zeke gestured to the colorful cup of equally colorful pens sitting between them. Her application, her choice.
"Quick run down for it: first couple of pages are obviously your general info. Full name, address, phone number, email, SSN, yadda yadda. Next after that is referential contacts, current place of work, job history, that sort of thing. Following that we have your basic legal mumbo jumbo including what we expect of you as a Guardian, what that entails, things you need to do before we approve you, steps you take afterward if we do, and then of course what you would need to do if at any time you want or need to back out of the project and what that means if you do have to go through with such a thing."
He was all smiles, hands moving back and forth as he spoke, which was rather quickly while also frankly.
"There's also several spots for your signature or your initials scattered throughout and then on the last page there's the final printed name and signature plus the date slot at the very end." There were two, in fact. One for her and then one for the staff member who received the documents from the applicant. "While you read it over, if you have anymore questions about it or the Lab, I'm more than happy to continue to answer! Also lemme say, I'm sorry it's so damn dense. Sometimes I think its written like that as a first step to weeding people out."
He hoped that alone didn't scare her off.
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Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2015 6:41 pm
Truthfully, Claire did feel a bit daunted at the mere size of the packet placed before her and the start of Zeke's long explanation. Much of this is what she had expected when she had come in, when still under the impression that this was the adoption agency she had thought it was. There were certainly other parameters that had to be met, she was certain, and all of that lay within the paperwork on the desk. She swallowed to master her moment of indecision and the desire to just take it home. Grab the bull by the horns, some would say, and this was her chance.
"No, no, understandable. This isn't something somebody can decide lightly, I'm sure. I'm just gonna need a minute or -" she dropped her gaze back to the thickness of the packet, "- ten to read everything through. Do you need anything to confirm our identity or anything? Utility bells, social security card? I've got both handy, just grabbed the mail on the way out the door this morning, but I figured I would ask." She laughed lightly, and with trembling, excited fingers, took up a blue pen from the cup and pulled the paperwork towards her.
Much of the first page was easily completed - run of the mill application stuff. She paused over the "current occupation" portion, the pen cap pressing to the corner of her mouth as she thought. Things were shaky at the tiny office she worked at as a paralegal due to declining hours and larger, more reputable offices in the district. Rather than focus on that, she went about completing what she could elsewhere, much of it still fresh in her mind from their current move and the paperwork they had had to complete in doing so. Claire spotted the afore-mentioned signature and initialing slots and dutifully signed, pausing in long stretches to read what was between the lines. The contract was certainly wordy and rather precise, but that was a godsend; better to have it all out and available.
After several minutes, she reached the end of the paperwork where a final signature and dating were required, and she flipped back to the front of the packet, eyes zooming in on the empty space for "current job." She set the packet down and tapped the space with her pen, looking up at Zeke from her seat across the desk.
"I would be the main guardian on paperwork and in practice, certainly, but there is a point here I would like to ask about? I've got a job currently but it is rather.. precarious now, as the office is slow right now, with few hours. My husband and I had talked about this before and I decided I would like to stay at home should I, er, have a child. Or adopt, in this case." She smiled. "He is second-in-command of his family's company and we're pretty well-provided for on his income, we own our house and everything. But I just wanted to know if it would be a problem if I ended up as a stay-at-home wife? I just don't know what's going to happen with the office and I feel no reason to withhold information about that, especially if it effects our eligibility."
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Friendly Conversationalist
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Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2015 11:08 pm
He laughed.
"Take all the time you need! And actually, yeah, a bill would be great! I can make a copy of it and tuck it in with your application!" He had ten minutes and many more after that to give if she needed it and he could fill one or two of those with copying and making a file. He procured the latter from the tail end of the open drawer; crisp, clean, and that yellow-tan color that one could only find used for such things. A few strokes of a black Sharpie later and 'Holmes, Claire' was printed as neatly as Zeke could manage on the tab that jutted from the top of the manilla folder.
After he set it off to the side, Zeke waited patiently for Claire to read through everything. He watched her mark here and sign there, feeling a pleasant bubble rise in his chest as he did so. It was nice to see someone here applying in person, rather than sending an email or a phone call requesting one be sent to their homes. At the very least he was able to meet a new face and with any luck, one that would become the next Guardian in the Lab. And, if luck would have it, he was asked if he knew the Miss Holmes in question, he could certifiably say that yes, he did and yes, she seemed to be a lovely lady who had lit up exponentially when he explained the project to her.
That had to count for something.
"Sure, ask away!" He returned her smile when she gave it and listened most attentively when she explained her situation and ultimately gave her question. A nod started off his reply. "Oh sure! That's totally fine! We understand that not all married couples are going to have both people in the workplace so as long as one of the two is employed and making enough for everyone to live comfortably, then that's a-okay! It sounds like you definitely are with your husband's job so you won't be disqualified if you're the Guardian in name and you're a homemaker."
It wouldn't be too bad at all, now that he thought on it. No worry about the Raevan being alone a lot or for long periods of time and on the other end of things, no worry about schedules needing to be worked around if she was chosen and still had her job at the time.
"Since you are employed at the moment, just put your place of work down and everything else it asks for regarding it. If you do end up becoming a stay-at-home wife and haven't been chosen at that time, just let us know. Email, phone call...I can update your file easy enough to reflect that." He could (and would!) even throw down a few additional notes about the circumstances of her loss of employment and how it was not truly a negative thing in the bigger picture. "But here, let me get you another sheet of paper so you can put your husband's company down as well. Just in case."
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