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]

"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?"

[bookblather]

"It's med school," Ahava said. "I'm going to be a psychiatrist. So far it's pretty awesome."

[teresa_corlioni]

"Wow," Teresa breathed. "You must be so smart." Even David never talked about being a doctor, when he thought he'd go to college.

[bookblather]

Ahava blushed and looked down. "Well, I don't know about that. I try for sure."

[teresa_corlioni]

"My brother probably could have been," Teresa said, "and David's really smart. So you have to be, too."

[bookblather]

She blushed again, but smiled this time. "Well, thank you. I just... I work with what God gave me, I guess." Assuming she believed in God, but whatever, somebody gave it to her.

[teresa_corlioni]

Teresa smiled back. "You're welcome. How much further do you have to go?"

[bookblather]

"Little over a semester," Ahava said. "Then I get my medical degree, then I move back to New York and do four years of residency, then maybe another year depending on what I want to do specifically." She shrugged. "We'll see, I guess."

[teresa_corlioni]

"Wow," Teresa breathed. "Johnny's best friend is a doctor, but I didn't know how long it took. That's a really long time."

[bookblather]

"It takes even longer for straightforward doctors," Ahava said. "My buddy John, in my class? He's got to do four years of residency plus two years of an internship before he's allowed to call himself a full-fledged doctor. I think he's a special case, but still, that's fourteen years of extra education."

[teresa_corlioni]

Teresa shook her head. "I can't imagine going to school that long. Matt's an ER doctor. He finished high school two years early and I think a year early for college, but that's still a long time."

[bookblather]

"Very long," Ahava said, and a beat later, "Damn, two years early, really? That's what we in the business would call prodigal."

[teresa_corlioni]

Teresa grinned. "Johnny said Matt was in school all summer so he could do it. He graduated at the same time as Torey, but he's the same age as Johnny." Really, a little older, but they were in kindergarten together, so it counted to Teresa. "He's really, really smart. And he's nice, too, like you."

[bookblather]

Ahava grinned. "Aww, thank you. But I should say, it's easy to be nice to you. You're such a lovely person. There are people I know who don't think I'm nice at all."

Like Aunt Irene, with her yearly slashed tires.

For example.