The Villa Is Open

[shipwreck_light]

Zephyr had a plan. "We are gonna make you the best electric milkshake that ever was!"

"Or will be!" Pip joined in, clapping her hands over her head as she danced along before him and Roa and generally got in the way of where they were trying to walk.

This gave Zephyr plenty of excuse to pause at the end of the hall and make himself a sweeping gesture. "In the historya... ah..." one that should have ended with him banging his hand on the wall.

Except for the part where the applicable wall had disappeared and not in the usual behold the busted drywall kind of way. It was just gone. Likewise, the hallway and the entirety of Sky Plaza.

Zephyr stood on some low, sweeping stone steps. That happened to be outside, while just a moment before been /inside/ and headed to the kitchen. "OK, what the hell?"

Roa took in the sudden sky all golden up the flanks of the villa before them and held her finger to her lips in curiosity. "I don't know, actually." Then, she attempted to walk down the way they had come. This got her over the steps and almost to the spray from the fountain in the drive before it became quite apparent merely turning around wasn't going to accomplish much besides dampening her shoes. Back up she went. "This *looks* like where they held the last Court of the Manor."

"You dunno?" his next sound was an odd one, not a moan and not a laugh, and awfully feline besides. "Yeah, that's not freakin me out or nothin. Dun you know everythin?"

"Zephyyyr. Same to you."

"You guys," interjected Pip, her bare toes rapping on the stone. "Think this's kinda the same thing happened to Seb."

"Hm?" Zephyr craned himself her way, and their hands tangled together, wires all a-flash.

"Mm!"

"Mnhn."

"Nnn~."

"Well, I like your theory so far," Roa nodded. Mostly, she wasn't being silly right back at their latest ridiculous display. Mostly. "Happened to Siebenkas...?"

"Yeah, he had this dream," the elder of the two evokers almost began to explain, digits working.

Whatever he meant to coax out of the recollections between them, Pip took over, swaying as she did. "He thinks was a dream, but is totally notta dream. I know. I touched him thinkin about it an it was all wrong fora dream. Still didn't make any sense, but not the same kinda way dreams do."

"Also, Seb never dreams he's nekkid. Fun fact."

("So useful, too," Roa remarked, quite to herself.)

"But, he walked outta his bathroom an alla a sudden, he was in this bar in Old New York an there were all these other people an he was almost kinda sorta mebbe flirtin with this mob boss lady over gin an tonic and then there was this real cute muddy guy. Seb didn't think he was so cute, but I did. He got way more distracted by the other lady evoked with her eyes and the booze was good an there were pretty blond polyamourous peeps bonkin in the restroom an... an... an..."

Her not so little description might have gone on another few hours, except that Zephyr reached around with his unoccupied hand and tickled her. The way they'd tangled up together, she must have known it was coming.

Which left Roa to conclude Pip wanted tickled more than she wanted to discuss any washroom adventures. "On one hand, that sounds very much like a dream to me. On the other, if there's some sort of precedent for people in our manor suddenly disobeying all known laws of physics. And you're not playing some sort of elaborate prank."

"Hey! I had my heart set on givin you your first electric milkshake an that's not somethin I'd go back on for any money." Next thing she did know with any certainty, Zephyr had play staggered over, clutching at his shirt, "'m so disappointed it /huuurts/."

"Well, you can make it up to me when the universe goes back to normal."

Grin for the time being, too.

"It is going to go back to normal?"

"Did last time. 's why we still gotta Seb an notta portal to someplace called Dan's," said Pip.

"Alright, so why don't we...?"

"Make the besta it?"

"Yes!" Roa swung from Zephyr's grasp. He only then reached for her, trying to find that place in her moments where the best meant [concrete] he could play after and with her. As it was, he missed her as she skipped the villa steps instead, swirling her skirt in her hands and calling back after: "We're going to get company, right?"

"Woul, that'd be nice, but if not," he shrugged. "We get blitzed an watch the stars come out." A quick little sigh and a pop of his shoulder after, he followed.

Pip watched the space in the sky where the clouds should have been. The end of her nose twitched. "We're so gettin company. Can smell it, almost. Somethin's zactly not right out there." Laughing then, she blew past them both and straight through the doors.



Stuff you actually need to know available in this direction:
http://rainbowlounge.dreamwidth.org/18653.html

Have fun!

ETA: This post has not been up thirty-six hours and we officially have more than 500 comments. SO I SUPPOSE THIS ISN'T FUN AT ALL AMMIRITE? XD

ETA II: I am really, really touched that everyone wants to take care of the deceased fellow in the pool. I'm sure he appreciates it (he didn't even have a name in the story where he first appeared ;_;). But, alas, there was only one of him and he's currently being handled. He may be installed in a bedroom shortly, and should that happen, I will give him his own thread for poking purposes.

Comments

[teresa_corlioni]

Teresa lit up at the question. "He's my little brother. Only two years younger, and he's a lot bigger than me, but I call him that anyway. He's my best friend. We take care of each other, and he bought my house and made sure it had a studio."

[bookblather]

"Don't worry," Ahava said. "They're always your little brothers, even when they tower above you. Brendan and Kyle are freaky tall but they're still my little brothers." Thank goodness for Tim and his relatively normal height. One of Brendan and Kyle's bioparents must have been drinking a lot of milk.

[teresa_corlioni]

"David and Torey are both fourteen inches taller than me." That didn't make them that tall, since Teresa was five feet even. "Torey says David should have played pro football. But he's always going to be my little brother. And Torey's." Johnny didn't count when it came to David.

[bookblather]

"Torey's your other brother?" Ahava asked. "Or have you got more? I have five siblings, not counting Duncan." She considered a moment. "Well. Six, technically, but Arelie and Duncan haven't got their kid yet so I don't know what it's going to be."

[teresa_corlioni]

Teresa giggles. "Torey's our oldest brother. Then it's Johnny, then our half-sister Lea, then me, then David. And then the other..." She counts to subtract. "The thirteen younger than David."

[bookblather]

"Thirteen?" Ahava blurted, eyes going wide. "Oh, wow. And I thought the six of us was a lot."

[teresa_corlioni]

"Yep," Teresa says, almost proudly. "Torey's thirty-two, and Maria's almost a year old. Eighteen of us, and eight mamas. My mama only has four, though, and that's the most out of any."

[bookblather]

Ahava did not comment on the age disparity, though she sorely wanted to. After all, wasn't she twenty-five, and her soon-to-be half-sibling probably under ten? It wasn't as big as that one, but... well, eight mothers. Somebody was redefining multiple marriage. "That's good, I guess," she said. "That nobody has too many kids. A lot of kids can get overwhelming." Not to mention the physical effects. There was a reason Ahava wasn't going into obstetrics.

[teresa_corlioni]

"Yeah. Everybody says they don't know how Pop does it." Teresa shrugs. "I think he just loves us all enough that it makes it easy for him."

[bookblather]

Ahava smiled, thinking of her own parents and the six of them, how much love had overflowed in their household. "Yeah, I get that," she said. "I'm lucky enough to have two sets of parents, and they all love me so, so much, it's like... it's like an ocean when you live on the beach. You don't have to be in it, but it's right there any time you need it."

[teresa_corlioni]

Teresa smiled broadly. "Yeah, it's like that for me, too. There's all my brothers and sisters, except Leo, and then Mama and Pop. I don't know how anyone has a different kind of family." Which was very true; it was just beyond her comprehension.

[bookblather]

"Except Leo?" Ahava asked, and then shook her head. "Never mind, it's probably like us being family except for Aunt Irene unless she gets her act together and apologizes to Tim." She barely prevented her lip from curling in a sneer. "It's been twenty years. I don't think she's going to. Is Leo like that?"

[teresa_corlioni]

Teresa made a face. "Yeah. He does bad things. Only Lea likes him, and I think she kinda has to because she's his full sister."

[bookblather]

"You are required to love family, it's true." Ahava sighed. "Although I think they waive that requirement for anyone especially bigoted, sexist, or otherwise horrible."

[teresa_corlioni]

"He gave me something one time," and Teresa's tone should have made it clear that it was very much not a good something. "I don't like him at all."

[bookblather]

Ahava frowned. "Gave you something?" she asked, carefully.

[teresa_corlioni]

"It made me see things. Nobody told me what it was, but they were all really made. David especially." It had only been four years before; the memories were still all too vivid.

[bookblather]

Drugs, probably. Oh, wow. "Yeaaaaah I'd say that classifies him as a grade-A asshole," Ahava said. "Want me and Duncan to beat him up?" She paused a moment, then said, "Well, really, I would beat him up. Duncan would just hold him for me. He's a gentleman that way."

[teresa_corlioni]

"David did," Teresa said, "and Johnny and Torey probably would have too, but thank you." David really had. Teresa probably shouldn't be so pleased about it, but she couldn't bring herself not to be.

[bookblather]

"Okay," Ahava said. "As long as he's been sufficiently beaten. Really, some people's children."

[teresa_corlioni]

"He has," Teresa assured her, then paused. "He's still mean, though, so you could probably do it again. It might help."

[bookblather]

"When I get back to New York, I will definitely look him up," Ahava said. "Leo... Corlioni, did you say?"

[teresa_corlioni]

"Leonardo Corlioni," Teresa said, nodding. "He's in school at Harvard right now, but he comes home for summers. His mama lives in Manhattan."

[bookblather]

"Oh, good, so does Duncan," Ahava said. Then she added, "He lives in Manhattan, I mean. Duncan. And when I move back I will live with him, even if he has a live-in girlfriend. He said so." Anyway, any significant other either one of them had would just have to learn to live with their friendship, because that was not changing.

[teresa_corlioni]

"That's going to make beating him up easier," Teresa said, grinning. "What are you in school for?"