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 Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2023 6:32 pm
“I wish I could figure out why the fountain doesn’t work,” Ephesus sighed softly as he used a broom to carefully sweep the shimmery mosaic floor of the courtyard. Amarynthos was helping him move some of the larger pots that once held living plants out of the way so they could get the floor cleaned up.
They’d found inserts to put into the channels in the floor so that they could move things easier without having to worry about something getting stuck. Or worse, one of them tripping and breaking an ankle.
Even after it rained, the fountains and channels had cleared up and held no water. Which was a shame, because Ephesus was sure it would look very serene if the water was flowing again.
“Michael said he could look at the plumbing when everything is ready for them to visit but… I don’t know. I would have liked to get everything cleaned up, first.”
He hoped he wasn’t whining. He glanced up at the Code where he’d placed it on top of the fountain. It was perched on top of a golden flower -- the top of the fountain that would keep the Code safe from getting wet, should the fountain start working again.
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Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2023 8:39 pm
Amarynthos planted his hands on his hips and leaned back as he stretched. His arms were a little sore–not so much that he needed to stop or take a break–and they were making good progress.
He understood Effie wanting to get things cleaned up first–they both wanted to do this on their own. Well–on their own, together. They wanted to be able to show off their Wonders some before asking for help.
“I can’t tell what’s wrong, either. I wish we had enough water to fill it up and see if we could find a leak or something. Or maybe it’s just a pump that’s broken? I have no idea. We could always ask Michael to explain it to us back home and hope he says something we can use.”
He sighed and rolled his shoulders as he stretched. “Too bad we don’t get internet on the Moon, we could just YouTube it. Ugh. Well–we’re still making a lot of progress. Watch, maybe there’s an ‘on’ switch around here somewhere.”
He leaned over the other side to peer down as if one would magically appear.
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Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2023 6:24 am
He giggled softly as Amarynthos searched for an ‘on’ switch. That would be useful to find, and it was cute that Amarynthos would think to look for one. He was probably right. Maybe a pump wasn’t working, and maybe they could just ask Michael to explain what to look for. Maybe they could still watch some videos about fixing fountains when they got home.
Ephesus continued his sweeping, working on getting some plant residue off of the shimmering tiles. “I wish I had a picture or something to see how everything looked like before. I don’t know what plants should be put in these big pots. Well, that one looks like it had a vine because it climbed up the column,” he sighed, and looked up to where the dead leaves were clinging to the stone. “But I don’t know if I should plant another vine. I don’t want it to damage the structure.”
He was rambling a little. Just filling the silence a bit so that hopefully Amarynthos wouldn’t get too bored of helping him. Reaching one of the tiger statues, Ephesus gave it a little pat, and then leaned down so he could sweep around the base.
But something shimmering caught his eye. It looked like a clasp that was attached to the collar around the statue’s neck.
“It looks like she’s missing a name tag or something,” he said, not sure if he was just talking to himself or trying to get Amarythos’ attention. “Do the tigers near you have anything on their collars?” he asked over his shoulder with a frown, hoping to find whatever was missing and returning it.
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Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2023 8:09 am
Amarynthos never minded hearing Ephesus talk, even if he was just vocalizing his internal monologue. Actually, if anyone asked him, he was pretty sure he’d say that he enjoyed it. Atticus used to be so quiet, so unsure of things, so every thought he shared now meant he was comfortable enough to share it.
Of course Mary was going to be delighted to hear it.
He wouldn’t ever get bored of helping Ephesus, even if it was totally silent.
When Ephesus mentioned something missing, Amarynthos uncurled himself from around the edge of the fountain, brushed himself off, and immediately went to the one closest to him.
“Oh, yeah. I mean, there’s something here, but it feels like something’s missing. Oh–” he trotted over to the one next to it and ran his hand along the collar there, too. “Yeah, this one’s missing something, too. But the ring looks like it’s in good condition, it’s not like it broke and something fell off?”
And, they hadn’t found anything broken while they were cleaning up, either. Which meant someone probably deliberately removed whatever they were wearing, right?
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Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2023 10:12 am
While Amarynthos checked on the couple tiger statues closest to him, Ephesus moved over to another one, carefully stepping over the channel that looked like it should be filled with water to get to it.
“This one too,” he frowned, giving the tiger a gentle pat on its head as well. “I don’t know, Mary… maybe these are just… supposed to look like this. They just look… incomplete-- oh!” he gasped suddenly, thinking about it for a few moments and then turning from the tiger back to Mary.
“What about those little water orb things? They had a clasp, didn’t they?” Or at least he thought they did.
“Hold on, let me get them,” he said, but was already hurrying off to the hall, leaving the broom behind for the time being. He felt bad for leaving Amarynthos on his own, but he was back in less than a minute, the wooden display box carefully held in his arms.
“Look, they’re the same color gold, too,” he pointed out as he set the box down on the edge of the fountain and opened it. He gently lifted one out and handed it to Amarynthos, and then took another so he could go over to the first tiger.
“Oh! I think these do go here,” he gasped, letting the pretty glass and gold orb hang from the tiger’s collar.
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Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2023 12:12 pm
Amarynthos had been rolling one around in his palm for long enough that he knew the little glass orbs had some sort of clasp on them, but Ephesus was gone before he could answer–and it didn’t matter anyway, not when he was running so fast to retrieve them!
If he didn’t think it would make Ephesus self conscious, he would have complimented him on his speed.
Amarynthos tried to stay busy while he was gone, but he only managed a bit of work before Effie was back by his side. He’d looked up to make sure he didn’t need help carrying anything–and to make sure Effie didn’t trip in his excitement.
He watched as Ephesus hung the first orb, and then he moved to the tiger next to him and carefully fixed the second one.
“I don’t know how they catch the light so well like this, but it’s really pretty. Should we put them in any order? Tell me where you want them and I’ll put them up,” he insisted, as eager to help as he was eager for Ephesus to add a little extra sparkle to his Wonder.
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Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2023 12:39 pm
“Oh,” Effie frowned a little when Mary asked if they should be in any order. He turned to go back to the box with the rest of them, and tried turning a couple of them over to see if they had anything different about them. He wasn’t sure if one was supposed to go with a specific tiger, but he would feel silly if he wasn’t doing it right.
“I don’t know, do you see anything that looks like it would match up? I don’t want to do it wrong,” he said quietly, shifting over to lean his shoulder against Amarynthos’ when he joined him at the box. “I’m not really good with stuff like this. I think I just put things that look pretty together. You’re much better with the finer details of things,” he said to Amarynthos, before looking up at him with a smile.
“I know I’ll be able to do anything with you helping to guide me,” he smiled, and reached for Amarynthos’ hand to hold for just a moment but -- oh, they were supposed to be trying to put up the orbs.
“Well, if we don’t like them how they’re put up, we can just switch them around, right?” he asked, and then turned to look at the two that had orbs already.
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Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2023 2:54 pm
Amarynthos looked at him for a second before a fresh, adoring smile grew on his face. “We can change things around all we like. Whatever’s perfect. I was thinking about that rainbow we saw earlier, I was just going to go in that order if it sounded good to you. I think you’re really good at things like this, by the way. It’s not like it’s a puzzle, it’s just about setting things up how you like, right?”
He took the opportunity to lean forward and kiss his cheek before picking up the next orb.
“Let’s see how we like these. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t giving you more work without asking. You should have more faith in yourself though, Effie! You don’t need me to guide you. You’re really talented and smart and creative on your own. I don’t know if I would have even thought to hang these up here, but you know? They had that watery stuff in them, so if we get them hung up we’ll at least have some water here. Like the rain earlier, pretty little rainbows of color, yeah? It’s metaphorical.”
Was it? He didn’t know, he just wanted to reassure Ephesus, especially since he’d been doing so well already.
Still, he smiled confidently as he hooked an orb to the next tiger’s collar.
“No matter what we do, it’s going to look great, Effie. This was a good idea.”
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Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2023 5:28 pm
Ephesus spun around and gasped at Amarynthos’ suggestion, his cheeks immediately flushing from the embarrassment of such an unnecessarily dramatic reaction.
“I really like that. I was just thinking how pretty that rainbow was, but then I remembered what you said after that and, well, I forgot about the rainbow,” he rambled sheepishly, rolling the orb in his hands, but careful not to drop it and break it. That would be horrible!
Oh, but Mary was so sweet and clever and thoughtful. It was difficult for Ephesus to not just run up and give him a kiss and--
Actually, Ephesus changed his mind and turned back around so he could practically skip over to where Amarynthos was and gave him a quick kiss, before scurrying back over to the tiger that he was trying to hook an orb to. He glanced around at the ones left, and decided to take the orb off the first one he did and moved it to one of the others. That way they would all shimmer in a rainbow gradient.
“Okay, last one,” he said a bit breathlessly as he made his way back to the center of the courtyard where the fountain and Code piece was. Except--
“Oh… oh no…” Ephesus said suddenly, glancing at the last orb in the box, and then around at the tiger statues that already all had their pretty gradient rainbow of liquid filled glass. “I guess these really weren’t supposed to go on the tigers… there’s an extra,” he frowned, trying not to seem too upset about it, but where else were seven magical glass baubles supposed to go?
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Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2023 5:53 pm
The spin, the gasp, the sudden color on his cheeks–Amarynthos could have swooned. He wanted to scoop Ephesus up and just kiss him all over. It didn’t seem fair that he was so cute–and it didn’t seem fair that he hadn’t seen how cute he was until only so recently.
Well, not recently, but since Devyn had come into the picture. Since just before they’d started dating.
He felt like he’d missed so much of Ephesus already and he wanted to make up for it every chance he got.
Thank goodness Ephesus had the same idea he did, but he was gone so quickly! It wasn’t enough! If they didn’t have the more immediate dilemma of figuring out what to do with the last orb, he would have picked him up for a spin. There was still time! After they figured out what to do with it! Even if it was difficult to think about what they should be doing right now.
Ephesus looked upset, though, and for as much as Mary just wanted to hug the sadness away, he wanted to solve the problem, too.
He took Ephesus’ hand and squeezed it reassuringly.
“Maybe there’s another tiger, Effie. Like how my bear was hidden? Maybe someone moved it to keep it safe. The Code might be able to point us in the right direction.”
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Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2023 7:06 pm
He knew Amarynthos had to be right. He usually was! The other tiger must have just been hidden away somewhere.
“Oh, that’s a good idea,” he nodded, squeezing Mary’s hand in return and looking up at him with such fondness and love -- because how could he not love him when Mary was so wonderful? Maybe it was a little silly for him to adore Amarynthos so much, but he didn’t care. Especially not when he did so much to make him feel better.
Ephesus had to tear his eyes away from Amarynthos so he could look up at the Code piece. It seemed a bit brighter than normal, almost like when Amarynthos had dropped his stone orb--
But it couldn’t be that simple. He hadn’t seen any ghosts of… anything. He’d seen mosaics of bees and butterflies and birds, but the tiger statues seemed to be unique to being inside the manor.
“Um,” he started a bit nervously, before looking up at Mary again for a boost of confidence.
“Would it be okay if you pointed us in the right direction to find the other tiger? If there is one, I mean,” he added quickly because that would be embarrassing if there wasn’t anything else to attach the little orb to.
He chewed on his lip for a moment, and then glanced up at Mary again. “I’m going to climb up. It was easier in the other boots but… could you give me a hand please?” he asked, not wanting to just take advantage of Mary’s help, even though he was certain he would give it unprompted.
And with confirmation, Ephesus carefully climbed up onto the first ledge of the tiered fountain, and reached up to offer the orb to the Code, gently tipping it over onto the golden flower where the Code was floating.
He didn’t know why, but he was surprised when the Code shone brightly, and he nearly had to turn away from the light, but the shimmering continued, and when he finally reached back up to pull the orb out, Ephesus let out a sudden yelp in surprise.
Water had begun flowing from the top, just under the golden flower, and Ephesus slipped and fell backwards off the edge.
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Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2023 9:05 pm
Any time Ephesus looked at him, he couldn’t help but smile–partly because Effie gave him butterflies, and partly because he just wanted him to know everything was going to be okay. And he was so brave! So bold!
Of course he’d help Ephesus climb up, that was no problem. If he were being honest, he liked being able to help him like that. He wanted to get stronger so he could make sure he could always lift him up, even without these Knightly boosts.
He expected the same as usual–he’d just wait here while Ephesus talked to the Code and make sure he didn't fall, but–
Oh, he did.
And Amarynthos was ready. He caught Ephesus easily, in a somewhat uncomfortable style at first, but as he stumbled backwards from the change in weight, he shifted Effie in his arms so he could hold him bridal style.
“What did it say?” he asked, knowing full well that the Code rarely spoke here. But the water was running! Actually–oh, they should get their stuff and get out of the fountain if there was water pouring in. “What happened?”
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2023 6:26 am
“Oh, sorry, thank you!” Ephesus said breathlessly as he clung to Amarynthos when he caught him and held him. He knew if he did happen to fall, that Mary wouldn’t let him, but it still took the breath from his lungs.
“I don’t know. It just started working again,” he explained, frowning a little up at the Code and -- oh there was water now. Right.
Ephesus held the orb in his hand, but held onto Amarynthos so he didn’t put him off balance or make it more difficult for him. In fact, he gave him a quick kiss on his cheek in thanks.
“Oh…” he frowned again as he looked over Amarynthos’ shoulder to a tiger statue without any orb on its collar yet. He could have sworn they’d put orbs on all of them… could have sworn there were only six, but… Maybe talking to the Code made the seventh appear.
It wasn’t until Amarynthos turned to look at the statue too that it blinked.
“Oh!” Ephesus gasped in surprise, his hold tightening on Amarynthos just a bit. Water was filling up the fountain now, and as it reached the brim of the pool, water poured out into the channels that wove around the courtyard. The water never rose up high enough to spill out onto the pathway, but it shimmered and sparkled under the starlit sky.
The tiger then opened its mouth to show large fangs and a curled tongue and -- yawned. And stretched out its legs, then shook out its mane.
“Oh… do you think he’s like your bear?” he wondered, suddenly excited about the idea of having a tiger wandering around his Wonder.
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2023 7:43 am
Amarynthos’ instinct had been to run–not just to escape the water filling the pool, but because–well, that was a large predator, with a very big mouth, and it could eat them.
But, it hadn’t been there before. And it didn’t look like any tiger he’d seen before.
He was pretty sure he would have heard something walking up to them, but then–he had been distracted by Ephesus. And the Code. And then the water.
It didn’t seem like it was a hostile creature, but he glanced around just to make sure there were no more hiding.
He was standing outside of the pool of water now, glad that he and Ephesus weren’t going to be the victims of soggy boots, but he was afraid to move without knowing that it wasn’t going to put them in danger.
Briefly, he glanced at the Code, but it didn’t seem like it was in any distress–and he was sure it would warn them if there was a dangerous predator on the loose. “Maybe,” he suggested, but it took a few seconds for him to warm up to the idea. “There are no other animals here. It’s not like it would have had anything to eat, otherwise. The, um–you have that orb, yeah?” He knew Ephesus was still holding it, so he continued, “The bear seems to understand me, maybe–can you ask it to do something so we know?”
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2023 1:31 pm
“W-what should I ask it?” he sputtered a little, suddenly concerned that he wouldn’t be able to convince the tiger not to eat them. That would be very bad, but… the tiger didn’t seem like it was going to hurt them, so maybe…?
“Um, oh… hello,” he tried lifting a hand from where he was holding onto Amarynthos’ shoulder and gave a little wave to the tiger. He clutched tightly to the orb with his other hand and held it to his chest as if to protect it.
“Could you please, um… do something so we know you won’t eat us. Oh, I shouldn’t ask that, should I? We have some sandwiches with us, don’t we? We could share! I think I have some snacks with me too,” he rambled, suddenly very nervous about all of this.
The tiger seemed to be done stretching and looked at them a little while longer before taking great but slow strides to close the distance between them. Effie clung a bit tighter to Amarynthos, especially when the tiger was close enough to bite them if it wanted.
But instead, it lowered its head and gave Amarynthos maybe too aggressive of an affectionate headbutt against his hip.
Close up, the tiger was mostly white with gold stripes, similar to the statues but obviously very much alive. And soft. And it shimmered like moondust.
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