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 Posted: Sun Jul 02, 2017 9:57 pm
He'd been fiddling with his phone incessantly lately. Some days it felt like his only contact with the outside world, which was patently untrue. Jannisari did her best to bolster him up, in her sort of harsh. The way she didn't assume her new role was as his 'parent' was kind of refreshing. It felt like what he needed, although he was sure any day she'd get fed up enough to get rid of him. Jannisari had told him he was fine, better than fine, but he'd noticed the irritation that flashed in her eyes here and there. Aadhira sighed. He'd never thought about this sort of thing before. Briefly, he debated calling Cruz and listening to the cheerful raevan chatter on - he was a good guy, surely, if a little too trusting. But Aadi wanted something between familiar and anonimity, if such a balance could be found. He scrolled through his contacts, the end of his ribbon flipping about lazily on the wicker chair. His room had it's own balcony, which was both extravagant and perfect. Veil. He tilted his hair, his shimmering man of hair sliding over one eye. Why was that name in his contacts? Did he - oh. Aadhira remembered and a small smile tilted his lips. Before he could think about it, he was hitting the dial button. kotaline b-better late than never? ;;
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Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2017 12:58 pm
"Lorenzo speaking, how may I help you?"
The voice on the other end of the line was far from mysterious or even standoffish- it was, simply put, professional, and, furthermore, male.
In fact, Lorenzo was more inclined to view Aadhira as the mysterious one in this situation. The phone was his personal one, and apart from his family and close friends, the only people who had the number were people who had access to the Lab directory. Thinking perhaps that a potential guardian might be grappling with an undead soul, like Evren, he added, "If you're associated with Lab 305, I'd be happy to arrange a meeting to help you with a particularly difficult soul, but I'm afraid that my services would be strictly non-professional. It's a little bit out of my area of expertise."
"Lorenzoooo!" a more familiar, feminine voice echoed in the background of the call. "I can't find my 3DS anywhere!"
"Excuse me," Lorenzo said, and, his voice, more faintly, addressed the feminine one. "Did you have it when you came back last night?"
"I think so," the feminine voice said doubtfully. "I'll text them to make sure, I guess."
Lorenzo returned to the call. "If you want to arrange a playdate with my raevan, I'm afraid I've been a bit busy of late. You'll have to ask her directly."
In the background, the feminine voice could be heard saying, "Hangout! A hangout! Playdates are for kids!"
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Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2017 10:59 am
"Hello, Lorenzo," Aadhira said pleasantly, but his mind raced, concocting all kinds of weird situations. What if Lorenzo was a hired bodyguard because Veil was someone too mysterious? But then, Lorenzo said 'my raevan', and well, bodyguard oculd still be possible, but it was far less likely. In his mind, he was already thinking of Lorenzo as 'sword'.... Cloak and dagger translated into veil and sword. It was a leap in logic, but Aadi find he enjoyed such things. After a moment spent twirling his hair around the fingers of his free hand, he spoke. "Yes, if you could pass the phone, please? I'd hate to take up more of your time, Lorenzo." There. That sounded nice and professional. "A meeting would be nice." An arrangement, a collusion of raevans.
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Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2017 11:10 am
"How very kind of you?" Lorenzo hazarded. "A moment, please." There was a pregnant pause, and then Lorenzo could be faintly heard on the other end of the line, saying, "I don't know how this happened, or who is calling, but it seems like it's for you."
It seemed like the girl had no such qualms about strange phone calls and mysterious meetings, and a few moments later, Aadhira was greeted with a chipper, "Hi hi! What can I do for you?" Vesna had her suspicions about the mysterious caller- after all, she had only ever talked to one other person on Lorenzo's phone, but it had been so long since she had spoken to him, that it seemed unlikely he would be calling her. If it was Aadhira, his reasons must be mysterious, which, given the circumstances of their last and only conversation, was fitting. Maybe all this time he had been trying to guess her secret identity- maybe he had finally found out! Maybe his guardian's techromantic magic had summoned some kind of phone demon, sealing off his phone until he became powerful enough to vanquish it. It couldn't be someone calling about her online purchases- she had stopped "borrowing" Lorenzo's credit card once she had decided to become more Dutiful And Caring, after all.
"Who is it?" Lorenzo asked, hovering fretfully between the hallway she was standing in, and his office, where a dangerously tall pile of papers was waiting to be filed. "They didn't leave a name."
"Isn't it obvious, then?" Vesna retorted. "It's a mysterious stranger!"
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Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2017 1:02 pm
"Well, you're far more mysterious than I am." He'd liked listening to their easy back and forth, somehow feeling vaguely discontented by it, even as he liked it. It was a tumultuous feeling.
"Is this Veil? Do you remember me? Are you still just as mysterious?" The questions were spoke without a break in-between then. Aadhira sounded strangely pleased, even though he was merely assuming it was the ever-fascinating Veil. He had no idea if it were her or someone else.
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Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2017 1:16 pm
"Oh!" said Vesna, and adjusted her tone to be less chipper, and more an approximation of something Steeped In Enigma, "I thought it might be you calling. It... is Veil... whom you address?" She scrunched up her face, concentrating hard on trying to borrow Lorenzo's Fanciest Words. "I certainly remember you, Aadhira! And I am still super mysterio- I mean, steeped in mystery. It's been an age since last we spake, you know? What have you been up t- Er, what deeds have you done since then? Did you want to hang out? Mysteriously?"
Lorenzo looked at Vesna as if she had grown another head. She smiled brightly at him and waved him back into his office.
"Are you having a stroke," he murmured.
"I've got it aaa-aall under control," she reassured Lorenzo. Mysteriously!
Lorenzo weighed the practical use of questioning her further, but decided the deadlines for his work were more pressing. "Call me if you need me," he offered.
"You'll probably be too busy to pick up," Vesna retorted, perhaps unkindly, but not unfairly. "I'll call Grandpa."
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Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2017 1:26 pm
He smiled, the motion making his eyes crinkle at the corners. She was certainly the most mysterious person he'd encountered and also the most... unchanged? It was oddly reassuring. "You must have preternatural senses of perception, my lady Viel," he murmured. "It's nice to see you are just as mysterious as before, in fact, I -" Lorenzo was talking and Aadhira waited, his face twitching in amusement at the conversation. "My guardian is often too busy, too. It kind of sucks," he said, sighing. "But the things I have done do not matter, only that I have..." Aadhira was trying to match his words to hers. "-experienced a change in status as of late, and I found myself wondering about y- thee." He shifted, tossing a pillow into the floor. "If we were to mysteriously hang out, I could see your visage - though I'm sure you would remain mysterious. It might be nice."
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Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2017 1:35 pm
Vesna eagerly continued their game. "Why, thou art, uh, genteel indeed, Sir Aadhira! I permit thee to hang o- gaze upon my visage, but be forewarned- all men see a different face peer back at them. And, like, everyone else does, too." She flipped open her own phone, opening up her texts and thumbing in his number, sending a text that said:
'veils phone number!!!!'
It had about 20 sparkle emojis attached to the end of it.
"Where have the winds of fate blown thee, Aadhira? I'm free to meet up, like, all day, but I li- abide in Durem, so if I go farther than that, I'll need to get a ride. Oh! If you're near Durem, we could go to the arcade, or the park, or for popsicles, or for shopping!! Like, whichever of those sounds the most occult to you."
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Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2017 9:47 pm
"I am sure each of thy different visages-" Was that a word? "-is more interesting than the last. Do you ever have people describe them to you?" His phone buzzed and he looked at the text, shooting her one back. 'Aadhira's phone number!!! Achievement Unlocked!'He opted for three sun emojis. Aadhira put the phone back to his ear in time to hear her start speaking again. "I, too, make my home in Durem. And any of those sound both good and mysterious! I've never had a popsicle, though... do you know of a good place?"
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Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 5:30 pm
Vesna knew of several places, and with a word to Lorenzo, and a root through his wardrobe, she slipped out to the closest to the brownstone, an artisianal popsicle and gelato shop called "Glace". It was a little expensive, which, now that she had a part time job of sorts, she was considering more when she went out, but even expensive popsicles were still just popsicles. Plus, they were the only thing she could eat apart from tea and other light foods, so it wasn't like Lorenzo would frown on her too much for splurging.
Not that he really paid much attention to that kind of thing anymore, she guessed. In a way, it was liberating, but it was also kind of frustrating. It would have been better if she could have been sure he wasn't paying attention because he trusted her to be independent- instead, sometimes she felt like he was just too busy to bother.
It was Gaia, and she was a regular here, so the cashiers more or less knew her, but she still gave them a friendly wave before she put on the things she had borrowed-not-stolen from Lorenzo's closet. The first was one of his lighter, shorter summer capes, which she swished around experimentally, wishing it was just a little cuter. The second was one of his masks, which she had been less sure about, because she knew how important masks were to necromancers, but figured was fine because it wasn't his full mask, the one he needed for his job. It was just a half-mask which, he had explained once, was one he had used while he was still in school. It was a lot plainer than his other mask, and together with the cape, it wasn't quite the ensemble she would have chosen if she had time, but it was still plenty mysterious. After all, it seemed like a shame to drop her game with Aadi, even if the only reason it had lasted this long was by accident. He hadn't sounded as cheerful as the first time they had spoken on the phone. Neither was she, so she supposed she felt felt the urge to be extra goofy with her old acquaintance.
She pulled out her phone and texted him. "I'm here! Text me when you think you've found me." She added a moon emoji and a couple more sparkles for good measure.
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