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 Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 8:50 pm
Three weeks and one day and he hadn't bothered her except to send her the occasional message, never anything dramatic, only casual little notes; generalized, of course (he didn't want her running away from him, though this seemed a bit in vain). Sometimes he told her about a random thing that had happened during the day ("I ran into Bix; he talked about Ceres heaps until I shut him up"); Sometimes he mentioned how things were going ("I think I've finally found a way to get the door in the front to stop creaking"); and sometimes he just sent her pictures of cute things, like a flower he'd picked the day before.
He didn't say "I love you."
He didn't ask "Why are you avoiding me?"
He didn't tell her about Nora, because Nora was family, and Stormy had just lost a part of her family.
He didn't say "I miss you" even though he did, his heart aching with the loss of her presence.
He didn't pressure her to come visit him, because it felt selfish somehow, with everything that had happened. Talking about himself, thinking only about himself, when her best friend had just died, seemed awfully, terribly self-centered and particularly arrogant.
He sent her her daily text:Ol-j-man Text to Stormy:I accidentally knocked Leonardo over today. Don't worry, I picked him up again, set him up again, right next to Michaelangelo and Esperanza. They'll be best friends by the end of the night.
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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 9:00 pm
And as per usual, there was no response. Not immediately. The one Gale recieved about 7 minutes afterwards was peculiar, however.kuroopu Text to Gale:INREQWJIREN ASITSNCE Quote: Text to Gale:SDFRNJTGN JHIKW FO SESNED Quote: Text to Gale:rewqiure AAS istancde Quote: Text to Gale:cl;laawsvbig
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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 9:28 pm
It took him several moments to decipher at least a part of the first message.
I require assistance.
The second part, however, he stared at for quite some time, his mind furiously working to separate the nonessential letters from the essential ones - and yet he couldn't quite seem to figure it out. The third and fourth fell into the same pattern - I require assistance - and then gibberish, but the fifth stopped him cold.
THANBE.
THANE.
Her weapon. Something to do with her weapon. He felt his heart race a little faster, already pulling on his coat as he ran down the stairs of his house, stumbling over the carpet in his haste to tug on his shoes. Gale's fingers fumbled with the buttons.Ol-j-man Text to Stormy:Where are you?
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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 9:41 pm
Quote: Text to Gale:L;LOCKDE OUTTY RIOM
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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 9:46 pm
He didn't respond to either of the last texts, already out the door of his house so fast he forgot to lock up behind him.
Three weeks and one day and this was the first time she had given any indication of her whereabouts. It had been the longest he'd gone without seeing her; the longest he'd gone without just hearing her voice. The one awkward moment during Bix's trainee tour didn't count; that had been something different, a moment snatched out of time, similar to the way that Stormy had snatched her hand out of Gale's.
He'd tried to be patient because of Nevada, but he wanted to be there for Stormy anyway.
Stormy in pain made his heart ache.
He got to the second floor of the dormitory building slightly out of breath, his coat unbuttoned, his shoelaces only haphazardly tied, and his hair pulled back into a short, messy ponytail. Padding down the hall, Gale reigned in his unsteady breath, tried to calm himself, to seem entirely at ease, even if he wasn't.
"Stormy?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 9:59 pm
"Is becoming an issue."
Thane was settled outside the familiar door with its familiar little snippet of a quote or poem or some nicely strung together words that she liked to place in case someone felt like reading, sticking out as something very unfamiliar. While skeletal faces made for little expression, it was obvious he was annoyed: he was hunched and stalking the area, his cloak was drawn about him and rustling constantly as bones popped beneath, his thinly webbed wings were tucked but shifting as if scratching an itch, and his eyes (or what passed for them) seemed brighter than usual.
In his hand was Stormy's phone. Visually, it was easy to see how talons did not a great texter make.
"Perhaps you will have better luck than I," Thane went on to say, his tone making it clear that he didn't enjoy having to employ anyone else for this. "She has locked herself in her room like a child and refuses to have contact."
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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 10:07 pm
Of all the people - or rather, all the creatures - Gale had wanted to see, Thane was not one of them. In fact, he was relatively low on the list, right above a certain werewolf and right below a certain redhead. Gale slowed his steps as he came nearer to the room, a wary expression replacing the concerned one he'd been wearing only seconds earlier. He wanted very badly to ask if it was actually Thane that was the issue, not Stormy, but something told him that it was probably a bad idea to provoke the dracholich.
<< Such a charming fellow, your ghoulfriend's weapon. >> Jinhai sighed from inside of his head, the dragon curling up in Gale's thoughts.
If by 'charming' you mean 'controlling and spiteful.'
<< That too. >>
"What are you doing in a golem?" Gale asked, stopping just in front of Thane, arms held loosely at his sides. His eyes strayed towards the door to Stormy's room, his gaze flickering slightly. "You can't be separated from her by more than a certain distance."
Something - a terrible nagging feeling in the pit of Gale's stomach - told him that Stormy already knew this and didn't care. He turned away from the dracholich and took a small breath, knocking on the door with a resolute expression on his face.
"Stormy?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 10:22 pm
Thane snorted derisively. "Do your ears work or are they bits of useless cancerous flesh? She is just beyond the door, short enough of a distance, and has been kind enough not to move, say, out the window." The strangely optimistic quote-plastered piece of wood taunted him. It was insulting that being in a golem was so restrictive that this obstacle couldn't be smashed.
There was a vague noise within Stormy's bedroom that wasn't her voice, then silence.
"Purportedly, she wished to 'be alone'. However, this is going to ridiculous lengths," he sneered, his level of frustration obvious as his teeth clicked against each other, "and has been a waste of time and money, as has this whole grieving process. A reprieve from her thoughts has been refreshing, but her behavior has not been. Get her out, boil, before she commits to some other foolish act in there." He made a motion as if to suggested kicking it in which, at least from his view of her memories, seemed a popular choice.
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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 10:32 pm
"Believe me, I can hear you just fine," Gale said, barely containing the sarcasm. He leaned closer to the door, pressing his ear against it to try and see if he could hear anything, but other than a noncommittal, muffled sound, there was nothing but silence.
Silence that was interrupted by Thane's snarling voice. Gale turned to look at him, his expression dour.
"Not much can be done with you standing guard like an overeager puppy," he muttered, and reached into his pockets, digging around for several minutes until he found what he was looking for - a simple ballpoint pen and his wallet, within which held his ID card, as well as a Deus Ex Machina issued credit card. He pulled out the latter of the two, and wedged it between the door frame and the door itself, wiggling it around. The pen he held between his teeth for the time being, his other hand twisting the doorknob.
"How long have you been out here, anyway?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 10:43 pm
"Long enough to know that there will be fines incurred for this." Surprisingly, Thane did stand back, brooding still but allowing Gale space to do his work. He stared intently at the door. "Assuming we even have the money to spare."
For a few moments, Gale made some progress-- And then she made a short, animalistic shriek.
A loud and sudden bang jostled the door as if something had been thrown against it, her attempt to startle or at least cause the would-be intruder to back off. The doorknob then jiggled slightly as if being gripped from the other side. Breathing exhaled from her nose could be heard through the door, anxious and quick like something cornered.
"I do not believe she is happy I invited you," Thane added, his head tilting slightly. "Perhaps now we will have progress."
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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 10:50 pm
"I have some extra funds lying around to cover whatever's necessary," said Gale absently, still focused on the door. He fiddled with the handle again, frowning at it, and took the pen from his mouth, unscrewing the top of it to reveal the thinner metal parts inside. He'd only picked a lock once or twice in his life (it was not one of his more admirable skills, nor even a skill at all; abysmal attempts at picking locks did not a talent make), but maybe he could do it this time, when the circumstances were dire.
He pushed his card further into the lock, twisted the handle again, and -
Bang.
Gale jumped backwards, startled. The sound, in combination with the horrible shriek, did not bode well for anyone, least of all Stormy, and Gale pressed a hand flat against the door, leaning in to try and hear her, to talk to her through the wood.
"Stormy," he said, ignoring Thane's comments. "Stormy, can you please let me in?"
A quiet question, not a demand He curled his fingers against the palm of hs hand.
"Please?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 11:17 pm
"No." Stormy sounded scratchy, as if she wasn't used to speaking, but she was uncharacteristically terse. "Breaking and entering isn't please. You b*****d, Thane, you b*****d. Why him?"
"Because you clearly are not coming out on your own," Thane replied calmly. Thoughts, actions, they were the same madness to him as it had been developing for over a month. "Do let us in."
She didn't answer at first. Instead, she kept her grip on the doorknob tight; any attempts to make the half-open door move would be met with resistance. Breathing. Breathing. Something like a whine at the back of her throat. Her chest was starting to hurt, and it seemed so much more after an hour (or less? or more) of solitude and numbness. Bringing Gale in was like shining a bright light in her eyes and expecting her to see anyway. No, more like stabbing a dagger in her heart and expecting it to keep beating.
How long had it been since they'd talked?
"I don't want to. I don't have to do anything," she said in an undertone, almost to herself more than them. "I was fine. I was fine. I am fine . . ." She hated being forced more than anything, to have choice taken away from her like this until she was backed into a proverbial and literal corner. If her room hadn't been on the second floor, she would have gone out the window and suffered the consequences therein. Even now, it was starting to get tempting the more enclosed her room became.
But what was worse? Being selfish and keeping her privacy at the expense of disappointing and possibly alienating someone else, or dragging him into that chaos that was pushing her into God only knew where? She had tried so hard not to involve Gale; it was a slap to the face that Thane had brought him in like a blunt tool to get the job done. Resentment and guilt were an ugly, boiling mix inside her--all over one stupid death.
"I'll be fine."
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 11:53 am
"Because I'm your boyfriend," said Gale, leaning his forehead against the door. The card and the pen were held lightly between his fingers, his arm at his side. "Because I wasn't trying to break and enter, I was trying to see you, Stormy. To hear you..."
He trailed off a little, sighing. Regardless of what she said, regardless of her desire to keep him at bay - for what reasons, he couldn't quite understand yet - Stormy was not fine, no matter how many times she tried to tell herself that, tried to tell him that, tried to tell Thane that (as much as Gale disliked having the dracholich involved).
"You don't have to let me in," he said finally. "You're right. You don't have to do anything at all if you don't want to But I'm still out here, and I'll still be here until you do."
He closed his eyes. Thane's motivations were untrustworthy, but the weapon had still called out to him to try and get Stormy out, which meant that something was wrong, something was very wrong to have the dracholich stoop as low as to call him.
"What good does shutting me out do?" Gale said softly.
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 12:41 pm
"You aren't seeing or hearing anything. Not me. Not all of me." She spoke quickly, as expecting another assault. That's all this was: a violent appeal to her ethos. Thane knew it was her weakness, it always had been. She hated it. She hated him. She hated herself. She hated that Gale was there to watch and remind her of her absence, even if she still saw it as necessary. Separation of body and soul, heart and mind, everything absent of one another.
Her skin still crawled with bugs at night, though. That part hadn't changed.
"You don't invite astronauts to watch stars collapse," she murmured. "You don't invite astronauts to watch black holes. Keep them out and stay safe."
"You will have to leave eventually," Thane remarked, sliding closer to Gale and the door. "Resistance is a waste of all of our time."
Stormy set a fist against the door. "Fighting isn't a waste. You have to fight or everything gets taken from you." She paused, then let her head fall against the wood next with a soft noise. "It matters, doesn't it? Even if it gets taken anyway, the point is you fought, right? Or...Or does it not matter?" she asked. "We fight and nothing changes. People die. People forget. People won't care a week after it happens."
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 12:57 pm
He was getting angry but he was trying very hard not to get angry, because anger had never solved anything. But Stormy was forgetting one very important detail in her self-imposed isolation, a crucial detail to this entire terrible, awful situation that he hadn't wanted to remind her of because he'd hoped that she would remember on her own.
"It matters to me," Gale said. "And I haven't forgotten."
He spread his hand along the grain of the door, Thane's presence a horrible reminder that things were still so very wrong here. Gale pressed his fingers flat, but didn't push, didn't try to force the door open just yet because he didn't want to make her angry at him.
"You've forgotten though, haven't you?" he asked quietly.
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