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 Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2015 1:43 pm
For once, Olga didn't have her face buried in her iPhone screen, but her purchases for the day as she walked down the sidewalk. She had the plastic bag held between her hands as she peered into it, beaming. It was sort of a big deal when she bought clothes. Especially ones that had nothing to do with Outlander references. She was sorely in need though---with winter coming and all! A few cute sweaters at this one store at this strip---ah. Good timing! Being a courier and doing that freelance writing on the side was a true blessing! To think she could have been able to easily afford it--- Hey wait a minute. She had caught sight of someone passing her out of the corner of her eye, and it had her head snapping up. She looked back over her shoulder, and blinked. Wait a minute---Olga then started to walk backwards, her long legs easily catching up with the person as she stared. "...Boss man!" She announced, finally, as she got a good look at Isaiah. Man. She almost didn't recognize him! She had only seen him once every few weeks, and it always had been in the pawnshop...it was almost like he couldn't possibly exist outside of it---like teachers in high school! Olga blinked once more as she stared at him, coming to a stop...he seemed a little...hrm...not as fluid as he usually was, based on his movements! "Hey uh...are you alright?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2015 8:57 am
Were it any other day, Isaiah would've noticed Olga and waved her down to exchanged pleasantries. He would've asked after her day and commiserated as he was wont to do - as he often noted improved relations with customers and employees alike. He would've engaged all his social proficiency to instill in her the belief that yes, indeed, he did very much care to hear about her latest cardigan purchase, or how her mother's boyfriend's cousin's dog choked on a piece of toenail. Remembering that toenail story mattered, because it improved business.
But on this day, Isaiah focused all his energy and concentration on simply learning to walk. In fact, he found it impressively occupying in how each movement warranted conscious consideration for the objects juxtaposed to his injured leg, accounting for the inflexibility of the cane when placing it for a step, considering the massive overworking sustained by his cane-arm, the similar conditions for his good leg, and how to cobble the jerky, stuttered movements together into a gait that may get him somewhere without exhausting him every tenth step. This was, of course, accompanied by trying to babysit a cigarette in his sling-arm and then pause to flamingo for a moment and take a drag. Overall he found it a very trying process.
Isaiah paused near one of the large planters for one of the much-needed breaks, and hoisted himself upon it in careful concerted efforts between arm, cane, and leg. Once the pressure was relieved from his limbs, he simply balanced the cane atop the curved lip of the planter and withdrew from his pocket a half-empty pack of cigarettes. He knew it as his fifth and he hadn't yet met midday - a deliriously prompt backslide in his slow efforts to wean off the smoking.
He recently finished lighting up, cigarette still poised and waiting in his sling arm, when Olga's voice drew his attention. Lazy hazel eyes drew to her reluctantly; were she any other stranger, he would not have spared a glance in her direction. Oh yes, quite alright. I just nearly had my leg amputated by a crazy jackass with a farming tool. Nothing to worry about.
Isaiah smiled faintly. "I would hate to lie to you. I've had a very desperate past few days." Nodding toward her bag, he continued. "Finally getting those winter clothes you've been wanting?" He knew he needed to do the same, but how was that possible if he could hardly wander thirty feet without exhausting himself?
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Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2015 3:28 pm
She'd been focused on his face first, but now that she had confirmed it was him, her eyes wandered to take inventory. Her mouth fell open at the cane, and the words were on her lips to ask, but were paused as he spoke. Her gaze bounced between the cane and the sling-arm. "Oh---geeze, Boss---Ah. Yeah." Her eyes widened a bit as she nodded, and lightly shook her bag. "Yeah! I got a few sweaters I desperately needed---" Her expression twisted once more. "I'm sorry! I hope you feel better soon---" Then, of course, came the archaic and obligatory question of: "What happened?" But she then followed it up with. "Is there anything I can do for you? Do you need help with anything?"
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Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2015 2:19 am
"I just want the staples out." He smiled, strained. "I didn't think it was possible to staple meat, but..." That smile turned to a cringe. "You wouldn't believe how much it hurts. And they pull, and itch, and get sore as-..." He trailed off as he tried for a proper comparison that didn't involve gratuitous sexual forays.
Nothing came up.
He waved the notion away. "Well. Do you remember when we talked about monsters and terrorists? One of them decided to attack me. Someone with a scythe and a fetish for Grim Reaper motifs." But the reality of it sat heavily with him - the lack of control, the madness behind it all, the absence of answers. Kill-or-corrupt came after the attack, when he could've easily done either. What drove him to do so? What drove him away? And how did Scholomance come into the fortune to survive?
Isaiah glanced to her sweaters, then glanced to her, then leaned back slightly on the heel of one hand. Doing so rendered him far more informal than before, when one leg kept trying to cross over the other and only succeeded in producing far too much pain. He hummed thoughtfully. "I could use your help, actually. You see, I'm not actually supposed to be walking right now - the doctors said I had to wait until the staples came out, but I'm not very good at just lying in bed." It's been two weeks, he lamented to himself. Two weeks since I last got laid. Fourteen days. This is getting ridiculous. "And, of course, my bedroom is upstairs, so I can't really get around the condo unless I really need something."
And as much as I like to piss in water bottles and pile up trash on my nightstand...
"The point of that is, in order to feed my cat, I have to grab a cane and negotiate all the stairs, and even then, the hardest part comes when I have to stoop to put the bowl down. For the moment I've been living with a friend, but that means the cat might be starving to death in there. Do you have the time to stop in every day and feed her? You'll get compensation. Maybe some boots for those sweaters."
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Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2015 8:21 am
Olga's expression turned horrified as he mentioned staples. " Ouch. Yeah---it's pretty amazing actually, the things they come up with to torture the human body in the name of healing." She grinned, briefly, before it faded, and her expression took on a somber tone. Oh, man. He had been attacked...? Her pen was a reassuring weight in her flannel pocket. She wondered if anyone powered had been around to help him out...or...hrm. The warning she had received from Polaris was clear, too. Being powered didn't mean one was invincible. Stuff still happened... She was snapped out of her thoughts by his voice, her expression immediately shifting from worry, to interest, to pleased, and then to surprised. "Isaiah!" She exclaimed, ready to say something about him being out against doctor's orders, when she stopped. Well. She couldn't blame him. She'd probably go crazy if she had to lay around for a while. "Well---just take it easy, yeah? You don't wanna make it worse! I'm glad you're okay though---yanno---not still in the hospital with something worse---" She nodded, then, following along, and was glad to hear that he was living with a friend right now, and was equally more glad to hear that he was asking something of her. Like, crazy delighted, that out of some people he could surely ask, he was asking her to take on this responsibility and go feed his cat in his house. Much too delighted. It had Olga beaming at him, as she flashed him a thumbs up. "I definitely have the time!" And even if she didn't, she'd make the time. "I'd love to help out, and take care of your cat!" She then shook her head, and waved her hand at him in dismissal. "Oh, you don't need to compensate me for it!" She assured him. "I'm happy to help out!" And just happy he was asking her for a favor that went beyond work heeee---
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Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2015 2:37 am
"Heh, I can't say it's the best decision, especially since I was attacked outside, but..." Isaiah shrugged. A life led by fear benefitted no one, and besides, Isaiah had no control over that situation regardless. "I figured I could do this and potentially do some damage, or let my legs rot and potentially do some damage. Either way, I figured getting out sometimes is better. And most people are helpful when they have to be. My friend will come pick me up if I get into too much trouble." Literally, he added in a snide mental note.
"Do you remember when we talked about monsters?" Isaiah reached into a pocket, rummaged around, and produced the crinkling soft pack half-full of cigarettes. Plucking one from its brethren, he lit up with the jet lighter necklace. "And the terrorists, of course. I met one the other night and he decided to try cutting my leg off. Needless to say, you might want to be careful if you've been doing your courier business after nightfall. Or, at the very least, don't stick around if you see a guy in a strange pink grim reaper outfit with a giant scythe. I don't think it would end well." Isaiah breathed deeply when he inhaled, drawing in all the smoke that he could. Afterward he sighed through his nose in two long plumes.
"Anyway, my cat's name is Tastykake, or TK for short. Don't ask; I didn't name her that. She's a sweetheart and will probably greet you at the door. Her food is in the bottom cupboard on the left hand side of the stove, and the can opener is just above that. She gets one can of wet food a day, and I usually keep a little dry food around in another bowl in case she gets hungry while I'm gone. There's a pitcher in the fridge with filtered water; try to remember to use that instead of the tap. I don't know what's in that shitty water. Her toys are in a small basket on the coffee table, too. She likes to play after she eats. You don't have to, but it would help her, I think.
"You'll find a little key box beneath the buzzer to my condo. The code for it is 2122. Try to remember to put it back when you're done.
"Oh, and beware when you turn on the lights. I uh, have a lot of things tied into that one switch, so your ears might not thank you at first. The remote is usually on the coffee table in the seating area, though, so you don't have to go far to turn off the sound system."
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Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2015 12:52 pm
"Yeah---you're right." She couldn't help but nod her head in agreement, eyeing his cane again, and hoping he hadn't been stressing himself out too much today already with this exercise. Olga blinked, and nodded her head again, this time a bit more subdued as she listened. Her eyes went a bit wide as he elaborated. Someone... was running around out there with a scythe!? Geeze. Sure, as senshi she had magic and all---but it really seemed unfair when there were people running around with sharp murderous objects. "How did you----er---get away...or did someone....?" She couldn't help but ask. "Did he...gives his name...?" She looked back at his cane and leg again, Isaiah's current condition being a solemn reminder to the other side of powered magical business. Olga's free hand reached up to rub the back of her neck, and her voice hushed. "I've...run into them too---monsters and... those guys---but don't worry, I'll be careful! Thanks for the heads up!" Olga pretty much resembled a bobble head for the majority of this conversation thus far, to show that she was listening as he told her everything she needed to know about his cat and how to get in. She laughed at the name. "I think it's adorable!" She made her mental check list, committing everything to memory, and thinking it was utterly endearing how well Isaiah treated TK. A can of wet food, and she didn't drink from the tap. "Man, if I die soon and get reincarnated as a cat, I'm going to your house, Boss Man." She grinned at him. "I'll head over to feed her and check up on her after I leave here!" She assured him, but that'd be later. She wasn't going anywhere anytime soon now, feeling the need to stay with Isaish for a spell to make sure he'd be okay.
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Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2015 5:39 pm
"I asked him who he was and he said his name was Labyrinthite. Sounds a little ridiculous, doesn't it? Like he's part of a labyrinthine cult." Oh, but you'll suffer for what you've done, you b*****d, he thought pleasantly. "But there wasn't much room for me to get away, considering he tried to amputate my leg. I don't know what made him change his mind and leave, but that was about what happened. One minute he was attacking me, the next he was scurrying away and throwing insults. As if I'd have paid attention to them... I was a little busy bleeding to death at the time." Isaiah sounded offended, as if Labyrinthite had claimed a portion of his dignity as well. And perhaps he had, for the past days involved assistance into the shower or using the bathroom. It damaged the pride for one who so coveted independence.
Monsters and 'those guys'. I wonder if we're talking in hushed tones as civilians, or if you have a powered side, Olga. Maybe you're a lieutenant of his. Or a fellow Saturn knight. Or a senshi of some kind. Or, perhaps, you really are just a civilian, caught hearing a tale about an almost-murder.That would be a shame.
Isaiah laughed at the cat comment. "No, trust me, there are better places to go. There's a Cat Café not far from the university, actually, which was where I got her. The guy who works there, Marinus, treats the cats very well. Better than what I've been doing for TK. You should go sometime if you like cats and don't have one. It helps that they have good food, too." As Isaiah remembered, cookies shaped like cats, teacups shaped like cats, milk foam on one's coffee shaped like a cat face, and mug cakes that had similar feline designs out of toppings.
Isaiah slid the cane from its perch and stood slowly, using it to leverage his weight. "I appreciate the help, Olga." Mentally he reminded himself that he'd probably gone far enough, and should spend the rest of his walking time returning home. Unfortunately, temporary home and permanent home were in two different directions. As he searched memory for detail, he realized that Olga came from the direction that he needed to go. It would be a shame for her to have to double back on those shops, but he was injured, and he figured that took precedent. Isaiah started in the direction from which he came. "You can walk with me if you like. Probably a good idea to make sure I don't get my cane caught in a storm grate or something."
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Posted: Fri Dec 04, 2015 10:45 pm
Just one word for Olga's face for the entire discussion of Labyrinthite: horrified. Just horrified for so many reasons, especially as she could just imagine being at someone's mercy like that. She related, since she had been at the mercy of one Pyrophanite and one Haüyne until those of Order had arrived that one night at an abandoned carnival. She'd been lucky though...and she thought Isaiah had been really lucky, too, to have survived. She reached out and patted his shoulder. "I'm glad you're still here, Boss man---and oh, I dunno, your house still sounds pretty awesome." Olga paused, and then gasped. "What!? Oh man---a Cat Café? Just like in Tokyo? Ahhhhh! I'm totally going to check it out! Thanks for the info!" Though now she supposed that she did have a cat---a magical cat, but yeah. A magical cat that came and went. "Not a problem!" She assured, flashing him a thumbs up. Olga wasn't exactly one to hover, but it was with worry and concern that she watched him stand, and was ready to move just in case. At the offer to walk with him though...well. Well, he had made Olga's day. Granted, she most likely would have just invited herself along to make sure he got back alright, but the fact that he asked her just made her happy. Her eyes were bright and she couldn't help the the smile that split her face. "For sure! It's not your cane I'm worried about though---it's you slipping through a storm grate." Here her expression turned fox eyed as she teased, and she moved to fall in (slow) stride with him. "Sorry though, Boss man---if I had a car, I'd definitely offer to drive you so you wouldn't have to walk!"
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Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2015 8:30 am
"It's a cute place. Of course, it helps that one of the baristas looks ah..." <********> was the right word, but not the one he wanted to use here. "Very unique. He said stocking days are Tuesdays. He has the most interesting tights. Pretty sure he sells some, too - they have little cat faces on them and such." Isaiah continued their walk, careful to stay on the inside track of the sidewalk. "His name was Marinus. Odd name." Odd man, really, for one who uses the terminology 'enigmatic puffs'.
But still, that a**.
Her quip about the storm drain led him to c**k a brow at her. "I'm not that skinny... Yet." Isaiah eyed one of the offending storm drains as they passed. The grate looked wide - certainly wide enough to break a cane. He thought, however, that he could thrust his entire arm through it; perhaps Olga's comment wasn't terribly hyperbolic. "But, I suppose, if I fell through a storm drain then you'd be obligated to get me back out if you ever wanted to be paid again. Though with my luck the sky would pick that exact moment to start pissing on me." A glance to the sky proved the clouds, that hung overhead in their steel curtain.
"I think the worst of it is that I actually have a car, and I would be able to drive it fine if it was an automatic. I can't believe I thought a manual was a good idea..." Isaiah sighed to himself.
"In any case, I shouldn't hold you long. The bus stop is about a block away. I take it you have more shopping to do?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2015 11:00 am
"Oh yeah?" Olga had her head tilted towards him as he spoke, but every now and then her eyes darted off to mind where she was stepping, and what was around before returning to him. "Oh man--- tights with cat faces on them? I'm so there!" So there. She made note of Tuesdays and the name Marinus, and also couldn't help but note that if Isaiah found him interesting and the place cute, then she was definitely going to have a good time! The perks of being easily amused! Olga laughed. "Well, just let it be known that the whole 'getting paid thing' comes second---" She flashed him two fingers as she spoke. "In the list of reasons of getting you out of the drain. A very close second." She tilted her head up to look at the sky. "Ahh, maybe!" She paused for a moment. "Do you think it's going to snow soon? Like sometime this month?" She looked back at him. "Ahhhhhhh..." She hummed in understanding. "What kind of car do you have, Boss man?" A manual....what? She tried to imagine what he'd drive, and giggled at the thought of some obnoxiously bright red sports convertible for kicks. "Oh!" She snapped out of her day dream. "No! You're not holding me up at all, um---" Actually. "I can ride with you!" Yeah, that seemed good, and she wanted to. "To your friend's house---just to make sure you get there, yeah? In one piece---and not in a storm drain!"
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 8:34 am
Isaiah smiled faintly to himself for Olga's enthusiasm. At one time, he knew he could've mustered those same reactions - but now? His standards rose too high, given the relatively recent presence of money in his life.
Unfortunately, hoping that Olga retained that quality sounded much too close to wishing perpetual poverty on her.
"Even if the 'getting paid thing' came first, I'd understand. I was that way once." And still am. "But as for snow... I'm not certain. The meteorologists were calling for a warm winter this year. So far they've been right." The question of this month was left unanswered, for one of the busses showed in the distance. For now, it remained a few intersections away and behind liberal traffic. It pained him to wait, but when they reached the bus stop, he took a seat on the covered bench offered there. His cane was balanced meticulously between his legs, and batted back and forth open-palmed.
"If you really wanted to ride with me, you're welcome to." Isaiah extended his good leg to get comfortable. "And to answer your question, it's a black Charger. I wanted something that looked like an undercover cop car so people would cut me off less often. A little advice - that plan doesn't actually work. In the immortal words of JD Salinger, 'people never notice anything'." The shopkeeper huffed to himself.
People never notice anything. That doesn't just apply to undercover cop cars, either - how many youma attacks are going unnoticed by the general public? How many Negaverse-perpetrated operations? How many senshi-perpetrated operations? How many people actually have the faintest idea of what this war is about?
"Hey, Olga. Out of curiosity: do you know why terrorists are attacking Destiny City?"
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 3:38 pm
"It's not! It's because I like you, first and foremost!" She grinned at him, and hummed thoughtfully, eyeing the sky once more. Upon arrival at the bus stop, Olga didn't take a seat, and instead stood near him, idly rocking on her heels as she clasped her hands behind her back. She felt her bag softly hitting her leg as it swung, and beamed down at him. "Just to make sure you get there safely!" She reiterated. "Oooh!" Olga imagined it, and then decided that a black Charger actually suited him well. She laughed. "Well, maybe you should add a light to it, yeah? But like---not one that would get you in trouble with the actual police...but one good enough to fool the citizens. Ah---" Olga grimaced a bit. "That's JD Salinger guy's pessimistic sounding!" People noticed things, surely...? Olga was musing about how perceptive 'people' were, when the question snapped her out of her thoughts. She blinked down at him in surprise. "Uh---yanno, I don't have the faintest idea, honestly---" She had some speculations sure, some crazy ones at that from all the reading and writing she did, on top of little tid bits here and there she did know but nothing concrete. "I'm going to find out, though!" She grinned at him, her tone sounding certain in regards to this statement. "What about you, Boss Man? Got any light to shed on the situation for me?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 11:29 pm
"Careful, you might sound like you're confessing your undying love for me." Isaiah spoke dryly, his easy demeanor belying the joke behind his words. He had found, from walking beside her, that she was just slightly taller than him - and therefore, at this angle, he was essentially eye-level with her stomach and crotch area. And he realized that the bus was the first instance in time when he wasn't actively doing something to someone whose crotch area was precariously close to his face.
It saddened him, somewhat.
"You've never read Catcher in the Rye, Olga?" Isaiah stretched his bad leg as much as he could in cramped bus seating and spun the handle of his cane in his hands. "While bitter, it's critically acclaimed. Perfect analogue to the teenage mind in their formative years. You might be a bit old to appreciate it now, but maybe if you read it when you were about fifteen or so... or could still get into that mentality." And I picked it up because I liked the cover. I liked the way the artist drew the demented horse speared through on a merry-go-round. I liked his sloppy penwork, and his sloppier color. Like the whole thing was cut out of construction paper. And I liked how much the speaker shat on the word 'grand'.
I must've been a stupid kid back then, but at least I had dreams.
When she asked after information on the terrorists, he sighed slowly. Now he needed to parse what he knew from what Scholomance knew, and he disliked the thought of lying to her - even bending the truth. "The war... Doesn't look like it's spreading. It's been focused here, for all this time, never expanding outside of Destiny City. This implies two things." Isaiah brandished fingers as he called them. "One: this is a last stand, and therefore a siege - one party has nowhere else to fall back to. Two: there's something in this city that everyone wants. Now, what they could want out of this dystopian Podunk town is beyond me, it's not like Fort Knox is headquartered here, but I figure there would have to be something. And since I can't think of one damned thing that could be worthwhile in a place like Destiny City, I'm going to assume the former. It's a siege."
While the spoke, the bus embarked on its long and circular route, pausing only occasionally to kneel the bus and allow on more passengers. Each paid with the same sense of lazy relief before they wandered toward the back. Most never took notice of either of them, and Isaiah only watched for the boarders in case he spotted an officer or a senshi.
"Do you have a clear schedule, Olga? I think... I could explain more of this if we could talk at my place."
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Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2015 10:21 am
"Oh, it'd be undying alright." Olga gave him a fox eyed grin. " It'd burn brighter than the sun---and much longer too! Since the sun's gonna explode eventually." Eventually being like...four to five billion years. She nodded her head. "Yeaaaaaaaaah, I have! Any wanna be novelist should read the critically acclaimed, yeah?" Though it was apparent by her expression that she didn't think all that highly of it, and it was no surprise, considering her eternally optimistic personality. "Did you like it, Boss Man?" Her attention zeroed in on him though at the slow sigh, and she blinked as she scooted closer to him. His thoughts on the matter intrigued her greatly---well, anything about the subject she found terribly interesting and enlightening, but for the first time, she had found an insight that made a good lick of sense. "I wondered that, too---" Olga paused to lower her voice, looking a bit sheepish before she leaned over more so that she could better, quietly, converse with him. "Why it only seems to be here, and no where else---and what you say, it makes a lot of sense!" She blinked, and then her eyes went wide at both surprise and excitement at the offer. She nodded her head eagerly, her hair mussing from the action. "Yeah! Oops---" She lowered her voice again. "I do!" She was so caught up in the excitement of hearing more, she hadn't thought to question him yet why he thought this.
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