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

[bookblather]

Aaron held his ground, but kept an eye on the muscles in her shoulders and chest. If she was going to try something it would start there. "My best friend's daughter," he said. "And if you go anywhere near her I will kill you. I won't even bother making it fun, I'll just do it."

He didn't love her. Love wasn't real. But he was fond of her, in his own way. And this... this creature so arrogant and presumptive would not go anywhere near her.

[shadowsong26]

"Not if I kill you first." Triumphantly, she got her knife out and slashed at him.

[bookblather]

Aaron evaded it easily, caught her arm, and twisted it up behind her back, immobilizing the knife. "For God's sake," he said, disgusted with her and everything. "You telegraph everything you do. Did no one teach you how to fight?"

Not that anyone had taught him. But he wasn't that stupid. Christ.

[shadowsong26]

She shrieked in impotent rage and kicked back at his nether regions. Even if she'd lost her shoes, it would still hurt. How dare he!

[bookblather]

Aaron rolled his eyes again when she collided with his upper calf, not very hard. "Really? That's all you've got?"

And he'd thought this would be fun.

[shadowsong26]

"No," she snarled. Time to try another angle.

She jabbed backwards with her free elbow, as hard as she could. Even if she couldn't get low enough, she should at least hit his gut and he'd drop her and she could get her knife and one of her hairpins and stab him.

[bookblather]

Aaron folded forward with a soft grunt, folding her down as well. "Stupid," he huffed, when he got a bit of air back. "I could get past that when I was nine."

Sisters. Turned out they were good for something.

[shadowsong26]

That had not gone as planned. But she did still have one hand free and he was still distracted, so she managed to snag one of her hairpins. She twisted as much as she could, trying to stab it into the arm holding her knife-hand.

[bookblather]

The hairpin stung faintly as it went in, but it was hardly more than a distraction, certainly nothing like enough to make him drop her. Aaron lost patience.

"You are becoming annoying," he informed her, and went to take the knife away, because this had stopped being fun several moments ago.

[shadowsong26]

"You're one to talk, stupid," Tana snapped, still struggling to get free. Why didn't that work?

[bookblather]

She had too good a grip on the damn knife to get it out of her hand. Aaron shrugged inwardly, and brought her wrist down very hard on the marble counter behind them.

Such an idiot. She wasn't even worth killing.

[shadowsong26]

Tana shrieked when she felt her wrist snap. Of course at that point she lost her grip on the knife, and nearly lost her hairpin as well, from the shock of it.

"You--you--how DARE you--" She disintegrated into what she knew had to be incoherent rage, and struggled to shut it down. She had to--that was how she'd convinced Kellom to let her kill Mellir, and it was something she'd need to kill this stupid freak.

[bookblather]

Aaron looked at her as if she were an idiot. "Because you tried to stab me," he said, in his best "you little idiot" voice. "If you try to do it again I will break your kneecaps."

[shadowsong26]

"You are a stupid rude freak. Why the hell shouldn't I stab you?" she shot back. Just when the pain was starting to dull the edge of her blind fury so she could stab him, then he went and used that tone again and ruin everything!

[bookblather]

He gave her a flat look, heavy-lidded. "A freak?" he asked, very delicately.

[shadowsong26]

"Obviously. Only a freak would refer to a child like you did." She met him glare for glare. "So what are you, then? Metal? Blood?"

[bookblather]

Aaron wanted badly to fold his arms, but he couldn't; that would leave him open to attack. Instead, he merely sighed. "I have not the faintest idea what you're talking about."

[shadowsong26]

She repeated herself, very slowly. "You're obviously a freak. Probably metal or blood. Which is it? I'm curious."

[bookblather]

"If you continue to call me a freak," Aaron said, levelly, "I will break your kneecaps. Explain yourself."

[shadowsong26]

((OOC: Very strong/explicit dehumanizing language ahead))

She hated using the other word. Kellom always made her in public, but it felt...like it didn't say enough. Mage. It sounded like just an attribute, like the way her oldest sisters were blonde and she and Keta were dark-haired. Some people were ages, some weren't. It just felt...wrong. Freaks weren't people.

"A mage," she finally spat.

[bookblather]

"You are utterly ridiculous," he said, flatly. "I am not from a universe where there is such a thing as mages. Nor am I a freak of any sort."

[shadowsong26]

"What in the world are you talking about? There's no such thing as other universes."

[bookblather]

"Then where do you think you are?" he asked, as patiently as he could.

It wasn't very patient.

[shadowsong26]

"Hell if I know. You probably brought me here, freak," Tana snapped back. "But there's only one world, I'm just in a part of it I've never seen before."

[bookblather]

"You are a fool," Aaron said, coolly. "And I am not a freak. I am a sociopath. Get your terminology correct."