rainbowlounge | The Villa Is Open

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roleplay: open

The Villa Is Open

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.

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"Really?" Summer's eyes widened. "That is so amazing! When did we discover that?"

"Been comin out lil by lil last couplea centuries. Never enhancements bein what made it useful. Lessee," he swayed a little, thinking in himself what to say, thinking after the facets of Summer's interest. "There's evokers like me an my kid. Stuff's mostly genetic. Invokers can go fishin for memories too. There's ruiners can fry other peoples' nerves an bleeders can part anything made outta flesh just touchin it, includin emselves so they dun seem to mind pain so much. Diviners get sensitive to certain kindsa atoms. If they're real good, can shift em around too, then they get called conjurers. Then, there's movers than gotta sensea motion even I can't describe. Some can teleport a little, sorta. Involvers now, they're better with computers en people an can make em do anythin they want."

(OOC: delay caused by my having to raid my notes. Haven't used much of this yet, so I couldn't remember what the rest were. Please do pardon me.)

"Oh, wow," Summer said, her eyes widening yet more. "This is why I wanted to be a doctor, to learn all of these things about people. I hope, though..." She swallowed, thinking of the dead. "I hope the ruiners and bleeders don't come along for a while. I... we have enough trouble."

Some of the things that passed through her thoughts at that. Zephyr didn't mind gore. He really didn't. But, gore as Summer knew it had this distinctly lifelike wetness to it. Besides some of the things she could imagine bleeders doing. That was just /messy/.

And pretty damn accurate.

"'s real long time yet," he assured her. "But, I gotta say. Only bleeder I know's real shy an quiet. Kinda likea snake with her. She's just as scareda other people as they area her."

He almost wished Nihil-est was there, that he could take Summer to her and the two could share their achy curiosity when it came to humanity. At least, that he could think back to her what Nihil-est was like inside and it was seldom he got so wistful when it came to one psyche touching another.

"Oh," Summer said. "Yes. I... I know what it's like to be scared of people, because you're different."

"Aww," said Zephyr, the shucks implied, his smile quite genuine after. "See now, s doctors saying stuff like that keeps people like me around at the start. So, yknow. That's awesome."

The way she meant it too. It was as if she held a sword between all those people in the world. Perhaps it shivered in her grasp, but it was there and it was sharp.

She giggled. "I'm glad," she told him, sincerely. "People like you should always be around. You're very nice."

And he was, he'd been so nice to her even though she was awkward and rude and clumsy with words. People like that were rare, so rare, rarer still now that she refused to lie about her boys. She was grateful for each and every one she met. She thought that as hard as she could, in hopes that he would hear it.

Which he did. He couldn't quite say there was anything cuddly or even soft about Summer and her gleaming sky intensity. Where would an softness live in that. But it was so warm and this bright kind of comforting still, little as he'd needed comforted at all with so much to enjoy and take in and...

Those boys again. The two of them- they approached the cuddly in her. And at the very least they were so interesting, albeit a few facets of many, besides that one unhappy pluck come them, all three of them, against the rest of the world that wasn't quite so brilliant.

"Oh I got all of that. Every last drop," he assured her. Then, a little more, his voice a bit softer. "An fun fact, my favorite co-worker's poly."

"Really?" Summer asked. "Is it more accepted where you're from? I don't... I don't think I'm poly really, it's just that I can't do without either Felipe or Zack, so I have to have them both." She shrugged. "But I don't know really."

He had to think about that one. "World an stuff? Gotta say, hasn't changed so much. People I hang around with though, they're cool. One we hadda do some pretty hardcore explainin, but then he was just like- oh. That exists."

And there had been handpuppets. Alas, the only union of drunk off his ass Siebenkas and such things.

"A lotta stuff I overhear so ta speak seems an awful lotta people just repeatin back they don't like that kinda stuff. Love's where ya faceplant onta it."

She giggled. "I like that. There's a reason they call it falling in love, I guess. And... I like 'oh, that exists.' It's a good reaction." Better than some. Better than some of her family.

She did laugh. At least a little. And as much as he liked the rest of her come through on her skin, it was so nice to hear it.

If he only had the reaction in question on film. What that could have been.

"Hey, if this sounds kinda weird."

Zephyr grinned, just a bit more. Weird indeed after all that.

"It's just, yknow. Really what I think. Just like what you really think that I've got, but... sometimes, family's where you find it too sometimes. And your boys are /cute/."

She smiled, shyly. "They are, aren't they? And they're so wonderful. They understand me, they protect me when I need it and they don't when I don't. And they love me. That's all you really need."

She shifted a little on the seat, then asked, "What about you? Do you have people who love you?"

Zephyr did likewise, turning just a little closer Summer and letting his head rest against the back of the couch. "Sure do. Got a kid, actually. Speakina what anybody needs, wasn't a real good situation. What happened."

Since he had that much already, and since even putting it that way made that dark something well up in his chest, Zephyr gave Summer the littlest squeeze before he went on. "An I coulda left her. I thought about it. Same time though, was like, I /couldn't/. Kept wonderin what the hell was wrong til she said it back to me that first time. Woul, cept for the part we weren't zactly talkin. She's like me, but she still tells me every day."

Summer nodded, solemnly, and patted his elbow gently. "I'm glad she does," she said. "Everyone should have someone who loves them. Will you tell me about her?"

Unbidden, she thought of the baby she wanted, the desire she hadn't told her boys about yet. She hadn't figured out how to bring it up, but she'd have to, and soon.

"Hey, if you want kids, you're gonna hafta get used to other parents an the fact all they wanna do is talk about /their/ kids," which wasn't so much one more thing to grin about, but too true not to.

"OK, so most kids dun wanna go to school? Pip begged me to go. She makes friends with orphans an grumpy bodyguards an parrots like they're all, err, just like her. An... huh..."

He gave a quick glance back to the bar. Pip was occupied with a couple back there. Oh, she'd found out if he shared /that/ eventually.

Seriously though? When was he going to get a chance to talk to someone about her like this again? Courtiers so seldom reproduced.

"...OK, so I worry bout her cause 's like somebody glued her fear switch in the off position. An that's kinda cool sometimes, but I just know onea these days 'm gonna be explaining her broken arm to my coworkers and they're all gonna look at me funny."

Summer giggled. "I know," she said, very solemnly. "That's why I wanted you to talk about your daughter. Pip? Is that short for something?" It was sort of an odd name otherwise, though no odder than some of the celebrity baby names she'd heard of. "She sounds lovely. If... um."

She bit her lip, and removed her hand from Zephyr's elbow, because the first thing she thought of was all the teenagers who crossed her table in the morgue, victims of drunken accidents or pranks gone wrong, convinced they were immortal, finding out in the worst way that they weren't. "Could you... I don't know, tell her that you worry?"

It wasn't a jolt, slipping out of Summer's head like that. A sea salt sky woosh and everything went to calm. Felt a little dim, actually. Compared to what it had been and for so much longer then most people like Summer agreed to sit with him like that.

He'd still felt it. That welling inside her and could guess after something that had hurt her. She'd given him so much already that afternoon.

He wasn't going to push it, even try to snatch her back, though part of him wanted to. Her concern, it just... it made him hurt a little too. And it was sweet.

"OK, this dun make any sense, but Pip's short for Chloris. Really. An she knows. /I/ know she does, but she..."

He still had to get closer to her for this whisper.

"She thinks she needs to take carea me."

Summer didn't laugh at that, because she understood it. "Zack," she said, "that's one of my boys, Zack, anyway, he still feels like he has to take care of his mother, and he's more than thirty. I don't think that's a feeling that goes away." She trailed off, then said, "Chloris? The nymph of spring?"

Zephyr's expression had gotten a definite rueful bite to it. "Ah geeze. I figured. But, hearin you say it."

Hearing anybody say that. Since it wasn't exactly the first time, though most people were usually echoing platitudes and Summer? No way.

"But yeah. She's Chloris, I'm Zephyr and ya hear her tell it, she's the heroa of any story you wanna throw in about it. Heh. Most people dun get the reference."

Summer shrugged. "One of the things about being the way I am, you get obsessed about things. In fifth grade we studied Greek mythology and I read everything I could find about it. I remembered it, that's all. Nothing special."

"But, yeah, I'm sorry, she'll worry about you forever, probably. It's only because she loves you, you know."

"Not that's a sorry thing," Zephyr said with a sigh. "You're not Pip and here I am I got my own lil guardian..."

He ended up shaking his head though. "...bein all backwards with me forever. But, sppose that's what I get for readin her Greek myths for bedtime stories. That was way fun though, so mebbe I can't zaclty discourage that."

She smiled. "It is an odd choice of reading. What ones did she like?"

"Mebbe requires some backstory then," Zephyr mentioned. "See, we were kind poor when she was little. So, notta lotta options in the bedtime story department. Found this compediuma Greek myths left behind in the place we lived. I did try makin stuff up, but wasn't ever real compellin. So, we had this book nobody was readin..."

Someone else had already read it though. Whoever had lived in the house before them. Someone's love had all but destroyed the volume and to the point no tape ever made it just right again.

"She likes Hades an Persephone, Eros an Psyche, Hyacinth an Apollo. Know you didn ask, but me? I'm inta anythin where Hera pitches a fit. Those're awesome."

"The love stories," Summer said, softly. "Yes, I liked those too. I wasn't as fond of Hera, but mostly because she seemed so... unreasonable." Her and Zeus both-- most of the gods, actually. "I like Hades and Persephone, anything with them in it."

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The Villa Is Open

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