| Logs |
2004 March 28
| Idlewild |
| Realms |
Retired
| Reality Fault |
General Info
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| Realms: Idlewild Logs |
March 28
The group back in Seodil's room having no idea that Lauren has left the area entirely rather than just wanting a bit of fresh air, attention there is still mostly focused on Clairchiare. Hunger wakes Lotte from her long afternoon nap, and she exits her room only to find dinner laid out on the usual table and no one else in sight-- only Lauren's skirts fast disappearing down the pathway outside, already out of all but yelling distance. Seodil's door is closed, magically opaque-- everyone else's is still open but the rooms are empty.
Lotte rubs her eyes and runs her fingers through her hair. She yawns and eyes the food on the table but doesn't want to eat alone. She notices Lauren's departure and assumes that at least some of the group is leaving, so she starts toward the path at a jog.
Moopy bobs in the air in front of Lauren. He points out that she is being followed, "Oh oh. Looks like somebody else had the elf kiss idea!"
Lauren turns to identify her pursuer, dabbing at her nose. She does not look pleased at the interruption.
Lotte sees that Lauren is alone as she catches up. "Hey, where is everybody?"
"Talking to Clairchiare, I think," Lauren grumbles. "It's about things I don't understand at all. You probably would, though. Something about the princess."
Lotte says, "Oh," Lotte begins, remembering Seodil's closed door. She picks up on Lauren's grumpiness. "Are you ok?""
Lauren takes a few more steps in the direction she was headed. "I'm fine," she says. "I don't know what they're talking about, but all they're doing right now is comforting Clairchiare anyway. I hardly even know him I thought I'd...um. Go."
Lotte says, "Go where? I wouldn't wander around out here. It's apparently pretty dangerous."
Lauren waves her hand in a generally eastern direction. "Oh, over there."
Lotte looks worried. "Ummmmm. Why don't you just come back with us. Maybe we can fill you in a little."
Heard only by Lauren, Moopy the imaginary squid says "Oh, I was SO right Boss. She's trying to get you back there so she can go get the elf lips."
Lauren looks distinctly nonplussed. "Look, um. It's nice of you. But when everyone's upset, I don't think they want to take time out just to tell the whole long story to me. I was going to-" her eyes shift nervously "-I thought I'd go see Zhi."
"Shut UP," Lauren demands of a spot in the air over a nearby low hedge.
Moopy sniffs and says, "I'm only trying to help, B-- fine. Fine. Shutting up."
Lotte looks even more worried, but decides to let it go when it's apparent that Lauren has a specific destination in mind. At the mention of her friends being upset, she feels the need to head back. "Ok, well... uh... you do that. Seeyoulaterbye." She jogs back to the rooms and knocks on Seodil's door.
Lauren's face falls. "I'm sorry," she whines at the spot of air in a hurt-little-girl voice. "I didn't mean it like THAT."
Moopy sniffs but smiles liplessly at Lauren. "S'ok, Boss. I believe you. Now let's go get you some elf kiss if it'll make you feel better."
Feeling ever more in need of a little cozy elf-loving, Lauren trudges along the path toward Zhi's quarters. "Yeah. I think it will."
Inside Seodil's crowded room, Clairchiare gives the door a panicked look. Seodil has a knife out, suddenly. Soleil shifts to wolf and growls, low.
Lotte calls out, "Guys? It's me. It's Lotte."
Aiden who went back to leaning against the door, says the word to shift it so that they can all see out. "Can I open the door?"
Clairchiare bows his head, looking exhausted. He murmurs, "Yes, let Lotte in, of course."
Aiden steps aside and opens the door for Lotte. He closes it behind her and goes back to leaning on it.
Lotte steps into a tense and grim-faced room. She frowns and asks no one in particular, "What's going on?"
Aiden flicks his eyes over to Steven, then back to Lotte. "It's very important that we find the Princess, and soon. We had visitors this evening.."
Sol looks at Seodil. Seodil looks at Clairchiare. Clairchiare is staring at the ground.
Lotte looks at Aiden. "Visitors? Someone please tell me what's going on."
Steven lets out a breath, and nods. "The ghost appeared again.
In a low, unhappy voice, Clairchiare says "Masked ball..." and trails off.
Lotte says, "Appeared to whom?"
Aiden takes a breath, "The ghost. Twice. We've also had visits from Clairchiare's mother, and Rathskeliad's mother.
Frowning, Seodil moves to sit by Clairchiare and pull the pink elf into a careful lean against his shoulder, an arm loosely around him. Clairchiare clings and starts sniffling.
Aiden steps closer to Lotte and whispers to her, "The child is Clairchiare's.."
Lotte looks suprised and horrified at Clairchiare's sniffling. "What did they say? What..." She stops as Aiden whispers to her. Lotte's eyes fill with tears as his words sink in, and she wipes them away as they come.
Aiden nods at Lotte. "We have to find her. There's a ball in a few days that might bring us some clues." He touches her shoulder, and drops his voice to a whisper again. "I'm sorry.."
Lotte bites her lip and says nothing. She just stares at the floor.
Aiden gives Lotte a quick, but tight hug. He stays standing next to her.
Sol looks sidelong at Lotte and sighs, lengthening and standing into an elf again. He walks softly over to lay a hand on her shoulder. Quiet, he says "Are you going to be all right?"
Lotte nods, embarassed by the attention. She wipes away the rest of her tears but can't bring herself to speak.
Clairchiare is crying quietly on Seodil's shoulder as the silver elf looks up and says to the room, "I believe there has been enough discussion for tonight. My brother and I will return here in the morning." Carefully, Seodil stands and helps Clairchiare follow.
Aiden nods, "Goodnight, Seodil. Take care of him.. I'm sorry."
Lotte stares at the floor until the two brothers have left.
With a slight nod, Seodil ushers his tearstricken brother out the door. Through the transparency, those still in the room can see them go slowly out of the suite altogether and turn to walk down the path outside.
Aiden watches until they're on the path out. "His mother and 'Whisper' have something to do with this.."
Sol scrubs a fist across his eyes and sighs. "You'd better explain the rest to Lotte..."
Steven bites his lip quitely. There's nothing he can really say about this; he knows it bothers Lotte, but right now, the more important thing is to find some way of saving the daughter. For some reason, Setisel Averet didn't exactly phrase it like a request.
Steven nods quietly to Aiden. "I agree."
Aiden looks at Lotte. "Setisel the White, Seodil and Clairchiare's father, appeared to me. I followed him into a garden not far from here, where I met a woman who called herself Whisper. She invited me to join her at a masked ball in two nights. Apparently, at the same time, Clairchiare's mother was nosing around our garden out there.."
Aiden says, "Setisel came again, into Steven's room. Steven asked him what he wanted from us and he said "Find my granddaughter". Apparently it's the Princess we're looking for. The child is Clairchiare's."
Aiden looks at Steven, "Did I miss anything?"
Steven shakes his head. "No, you got it all. Though I think he said 'SAVE my granddaughter.'"
Aiden nods, "Yeah. It probably was."
Lotte nods at the explanation as it is given to her but doesn't make eye contact with anyone. She half-whispers, "Where does the Prince fall into all this?"
Aiden says, "Prince Lyriquin?"
Sol's laugh is short and wry. "Not fathering children."
Steven says, "Even so... We've now been asked by just about everyone -- except, interestingly, the two mothers -- to help with this."
Lotte's eyes well up again but she appears to choke it down.
Aiden says, "The two mothers who are busy nosing around and trying to figure out what we know."
Aiden says, "I don't trust either of them as far as I could comfortably throw them.."
Sol says, "Hm. Does this suggest to anyone else that maybe we are not all on the same side--" he breaks off and nods to Aiden.
Steven says, "I wouldn't trust either of them even that far."
Aiden says, "They're involved, Sol.. I'm sure of it. I can just feel it.. and I am going to make that appointment that I have with Elis, and I am going to smile and play along, because it's worth it if it will help find the Princess."
Lotte listens quietly to the rest of the group as they discuss.
Sol says, "If Clairchiare is the father, does his mother know?"
Aiden says, "Probably. Would he know that she knew? Maybe not."
Sol quirks an eyebrow and says, "Well. By all accounts she's a horrible person. What does she stand to gain from this situation?"
Aiden says, "That we don't know."
Steven says, "Would it be some kind of scandal if Clairchiare was found to be the father?"
Aiden says, "But.. if she doesn't approve. The Princess is married..."
Lotte pipes up quietly, "Does the Prince or the Princess hold more power here?"
Aiden frowns, "The Princess, I think."
Sol sighs and runs a hand through his bright short hair. "I'm not sure how Summer works, but it might be a scandal. On the other hand... the child is still the Princess', so third in line for the throne-- and an Averet."
Aiden's eyes widen. "What if she's not trying to kill the child, but the mother."
Lotte nods to Soleil. "That's what I was thinking. Maybe someone is trying to get their family nearer to the throne."
The sunny elf shrugs at Lotte, "Prince Lyriquin doesn't have any power not given him by the Princess Seulement... she does have a brother, who is older and heir, but he is away travelling. Ilirith told me at the party."
Aiden says, "Or to rule from behind it..."
Sol blinks at Lotte and Aiden and nods, slowly.
Aiden says, "The child wouldn't be an adult until when? Fourty? And if the others in line were away.. indisposed.. or dead.. She could rule as Regent for the child."
Sol winces very slightly and says, "Roughly forty, yes." A bit defensively, he says "Summer matures more slowly than Winter."
Lotte says, "So she kills the Princess and leaves the Prince with no power. And eventually introduces the child to the court as an heir to the throne?"
Aiden nods, "She doesn't even have to kill them all right away.. She's got fourty years to get herself into the prime spot behind the thron--" He catches Sol's defensive tone and smiles at him. "I'm younger than you.. doesn't matter one whit to me."
Aiden says, "The Prince doesn't matter anyway. Once the Princess is dead, the Prince is swept aside. He has no power, and if the child isn't his, he has nothing keeping him anywhere near the throne."
Sol takes a shallow breath and says, grim, "It is... not an impossible theory, Lotte." He doesn't look happy about it, then nods again to Aiden... and smiles back slowly, distracted. And blinks. "How old are you, Aiden?"
Steven blinks as the conversation suddenly turns to age.
Aiden looks at Sol, "You're sixty, yes?"
Sol nods, "Maybe a few years over, we didn't keep very good count."
Aiden nods, "By the standards of Summer, I'm still a child. I'm probably still a child by the standards of Winter. I just turned 23." He's looking a little pink by the time he finishes, adding, hastily. "We're considered adults at 18 in most places in the Grey World."
Sol blinks again and gets a spreading grin. He just pats Aiden on the shoulder and murmurs, "I see. Mm, don't worry." Louder, he says "I think we need to talk this over with ev--" he frowns. "..Everyone but Clairchiare. Can we sit on this til morning? Maybe eat?"
Steven nods quietly. "Food sounds good. Speaking of everyone, we need to update.. our new sibling."
Aiden nods, "Yeah. Can we? I'm starving."
Lotte nods. "Oh, she's... she's with Zhi."
The golden elf adds softly, "I'm very afraid you are all right.." He nods and says, "Right th--" and blinks at Lotte. "She is?"
Aiden frowns. "I'm not sure that's wise.."
Sol laughs and says, "Wise is arguable but I bet we won't see her again til morning."
Lotte says, "Yeah. I thought you were all leaving so I ran after, but she was alone. She was acting really strange and told me that she was going to see Zhi. She also told a hedge to shut up...""
Soleil looks a little worried. "We might want to go find her."
Aiden says, "That's funny.. She was talking over my shoulder earlier. I'm going to find her.."
Lotte pauses, then suggests, "Maybe we should just make sure she's with him. He seems harmless."
Aiden nods, "Alright.. Long as she's safe.."
Steven blinks. He makes a mental note to try and look closer at where she's talking to. Maybe it's something he can see...
Aiden says, "Lotte? Steven? One of you want to go with me? We'll just go ask if she's got there safely.."
Steven nods, straightening. "I'll go with you, Aiden. Er.. do you know the way?"
Sol opens the door and waves them out. "Let's go, then. I remember the directions... he made them clear enough to everyone. Twice."
Lotte sighs. "Ghost and I will hold down the fort here, I think."
Aiden nods at Sol. "He was very pushy about the directions." Aiden heads out. He can still hear the directions in his head. In Zhi's voice. With Zhi's enthusiasm. It's getting sort of annoying.
Sol tilts his head, worried. "Are you sure, Lotte? Do you want me to stay too?"
Lotte shakes her head fervently. "No. We'll be fine."
Sol nods, and goes on... not without a concerned backward look.
Ghost leans against Lotte's leg and licks her hand reassuringly.
Lotte plunks down on the couch and curls up in the fetal position for a while.
The trio headed toward Zhi's sleeping arrangements get there with no difficulty at all. It's a similar suite arrangement, but more like a mossy jungle gym and adult-sized climbing set in the common room, with the pool off to one side.
Steven can't help but be worried about Lotte as they go off to find Lauren. He knows Lotte really -- really -- liked Clairchiare, and this makes an odd turn of things. He blinks, though, distracted as he looks around at the suite.
Aiden looks at the climbing set in the middle of the room. Monkey bars. Oh. He looks over at Steven. "So. Are we climbing up, or just calling to see if someone comes down?"
To get to the rooms, one apparently has to climb a bit to the next level where the doorways are. There are three, none closed, a few feet higher than Sol and set far enough back that there is no view in without climbing.
Sol says, "Well, if he can't be trusted, he'd just yell back, right?"
Aiden says, "We're just making sure she got here safe, aren't we?"
Steven nods, "Pretty much.
There's a whimper audible, softly, through one of the doors.
Aiden frowns, "Hello?"
Sol nods. His ears twitch as he turns, fast, to face the door and start climbing.
...and not a 'hurt' whimper, 'disappointed' whimper, or 'petulant' whimper, either. Unsurprisingly, Lauren does not answer.
....Sol stops climbing.
Steven blinks. "Uhm...."
Zhi's voice is recognizeable in a low, dark chuckle.
Aiden's eyes widen. "I guess she made it.."
Sol leans on the stiff climbing vines and snickers, shoulders shaking.
Steven says, "Errr... I... think she did, yes...."
Aiden looks up, "She's here. She sounds safe.. Let's go."
Aiden adds, "We'll get her for the meeting in the morning."
Steven nods, enthusiastically, to Aiden.
Jumping off and landing lightly, Sol turns. "Sounds good to m--" he coughs and smirks. "Sounds like a good idea to me. Yes."
Aiden turns around and walks out of the room, head down. He heads back towards the suite they all share.
Lotte has fallen asleep on the couch while the others were gone.
Lauren is up past her bedtime and doubtlessly embarasses any prudish neighbors that Zhi may have--though that seems doubtful.
Despite his request to Steven, Aiden doesn't stay in Steven's room. He sort of wanders off on his own, and doesn't return.
Steven doesn't quite spend the night awake and starting at every little creak of wood... or maybe he does. He just knows that his sleep isn't terribly great.
Sol regards Lotte silently and then curls up on the other couch despite his room finally being free. She sees him there when she awakens; it's still dark.
Steven wakes just before dawn to see a familiar pale figure glowing faintly at the foot of his bed. Staring with pupilless white eyes.
Lotte wakes before dawn with a rumbling stomach. She sits up to see if there is any food on the table and catches a glance of a ghostly figure in Steven's room. Frozen with anxiety, she sits still on the couch.
The temperature in Steven's room seems to drop a few degrees as the ghost stares, waiting.
Steven comes awake fitfully, sighing and figuring he's not going to get much sleep, nor will he. He slowly rouse himself, shivering, and starting to sit up. "Why is it so c--" he breaks off, realizing that it only got this cold when the ghost was here last.. and that the ghost is here now.
Setisel's ghost looks distinctly peeved before it vanishes.
Steven blinks, and shivers. "Er... hey, wait! What did we do wrong...?!
Lotte hears Steven's voice and jumps up just as the ghost disappears. She runs into his room. "Are you ok? Was that Seodil's father?"
Steven swallows, nodding, and sighing. "He.. didn't look happy."
Uncurling over on the couch, Sol doesn't look very happy either. "What did he say this time?"
Across the garden, Lauren stretches out her slightly kinked limbs on Zhi's soft mossy floor and ruffles his mohawk fondly. "Breakfast would be good," she says. "GOD, I'm hungry."
Lotte notices Sol for the first time and looks confused. "Sol, where's Aiden?!"
Zhi looks delighted at Lauren and says, "Well my lady--" with a pause to look blissful at the hair ruffle-- "Aside from the obvious, I am sure that venturing forth would also gain us fruits, berries, nuts..." he grins.
Sol scowls. "Nearby." He looks away from Lotte, toward Aiden, and shuts his lips on whatever else he might have said. "Aiden, Steven had another visitation."
Steven pulls himself woozilly out of the room. "He didn't say anything, just looked really ticked--" He blinks. "Hey, where IS Aiden...?
Aiden wanders into the room, from outside. He didn't sleep in this suite, apparently. He's looking more than a little ragged, like he's had another night of very little sleep. He sits down on the floor next to the table and leans his elbow on it, propping his hand on his hand. "Morning.."
Lotte says, "Woah woah woah. Aiden, where have you been?""
Lauren groans good-naturedly. The world seems so much nicer today! "But everyone is so DEPRESSING out there," she says, nuzzling her nose shyly against Zhi's pointed ear.
Aiden frowns, "He didn't say anything? He must assume that we're not doing enough. We ought to get working today.."
Sol mutters, "If I were a princess, where would I be?"
Aiden says, "I wonder if their vacation involved dropping her off wherever they were.."
Lotte says sharply, "Hey. I asked you a question."
Zhi grins at Lauren and wraps her into a cuddle. "You have a point. Stay here then. We'll find something for breakfast. --Say. We could eat Kip." Kip has poked his head in the door and glares mildly at Zhi. Kip says, "No. You couldn't. I'm going to go see the wraith-kin, anyway. Some of us remember that we have work to do."
Aiden looks up at Lotte, frowning. "I slept over there last night." He motions off towards another suite.
Lotte frowns but refrains from prying further. She nods and then takes a deep breath, trying to get her temper under control.
"...wraith-kin?" Lauren surprises herself by not scrambling for cover when Kip pokes his chocolate head in the door. It's so hard to be nervous with Zhi around. "What's a wraith-kin? The other guys were talking about a ghost yesterday. Oh, god, I have to get back...aigh..." She rolls to her feet and starts hunting up her scattered clothes.
Kip smiles. Sort of. "You are."
Aiden sighs, running a hand through his hair. He stands up. "I wanted to be alone, so I left. I'm sorry I didn't think to inform you before I went." He walks out of the room, into the room that he and Soleil share, to have a shower and change.
"I'm not!" Lauren protests, muffled by the dress she's pulling over her head. "I'm not a ghost, and neither are they...mmf. Come on! They'll probably even have breakfast!" Grinning like an idiot she hops out the door and starts clambering down the jungle gym.
When Lauren arrives, Kip and Zhi in tow-- Zhi wearing only a pair of bright patchwork pants and a number of blue tattoos-- there is indeed breakfast. Also Lotte, Steven, Sol and a damp Aiden walking out of a doorway.
Aiden nods at Lauren. "Good morning, Lauren. Welcome Kip, Zhi." He settles back down on the floor, next to the table, near Sol on the couch.
Lotte sees Kip and sighs. She ignores the group, sitting down with her back to them and picking at her breakfast.
Lauren is still grinning, but the grin fades with the realization that it's a little out-of-place. "Um. Good morning, everybody."
Kip nods politely if still a bit stiffly to everyone and says, "Good morning, Aiden. Everyone."
Aiden motions at the table, "Make yourselves comfortable."
Lauren settles down to breakfast, with a nod toward Aiden, and sedately sets about trying to eat most of what's on the table.
Steven seems rather withdrawn and bothered as he sits down to breakfast. It feels like to him things are falling apart.
Kip says abruptly, "Do you, uh, talk to ghosts?" He appears to be addressing an apple.
Zhi munches cheerily away beside Lauren, holding her hand under the table.
Aiden looks at Kip oddly. "Who?"
Turning pink across the cheeks, Kip looks up at Aiden. "Princess Seulement. I want to know if you've seen her... dead."
Aiden shakes his head. "No. I haven't seen her in any state."
Lauren pauses in chewing up a strawberry. "I told you we're not ghosts, Kip. We can't see dead people."
Obviously trying to be polite in an awkward territory, Kip says, to Aiden, "Oh. Who do you, um, normally see?"
Aiden says, "I've seen a wolf. Once."
Zhi grins.
Ghost makes a suspiciously amused whuffing sound.
Redder, Kip says "Yeah, I've seen wolves too. --Never mind."
Glancing at Lauren, Kip mutters "You're supposed to see dead people."
Aiden tilts his head to the side. "White, no pupils in his eyes.. about this big..?" He holds his hand to indicate the height of the wolf he saw.
There is a pause as Kip looks at Aiden. "Um. No. Never seen that kind."
Aiden nods. "We're supposed to see dead people? Why?
Sol blinks and says, "Oh. Kip, he was serious. It was a ghost wolf. We weren't mocking you."
Lauren pokes her tongue at Kip. "Well, we don't."
Aiden blinks, "No, I'm not mocking you Kip.. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to give that impression at all. I did see him.."
Kip looks confused, then nods. He sighs, "You've passed through the veil, you're supposed to have a looser hold on this world than the rest of us. That lets you see ghosts; you're closer to them. ..You saw a ghost wolf?"
Lotte looks up from her food and blinks, then studies Ghost as if she had just thought of something interesting.
Steven frowns a little. The veil, looser connection, seeing ghosts.... Something is starting to bother him about the relationships between this world and the Grey World.
Zhi says helpfully, "I don't think the wraith-kin myth is true, you know. My vitality is feeling fine. Even after last night." He grins.
"Muh," Lauren mumbles with her mouth still full. "Why do I get the idea this is a bad thing, somehow?"
"...not you, Zhi," Lauren hastens to add.
Ghost tilts her head at Lotte and flops her tail.
Zhi says comfortably, "Of course I'm not, sweet."
Aiden nods, "Yeah, Kip. I did. He led me around for a while." He pauses, trying to phrase this. "I'm not sure about the looser hold on this world, honestly, we've passed the veil, yes, but I don't feel any different on this side of it than I did on the other."
Lotte continues to stare at Ghost thoughtfully. "Zhi, does anyone here have the ability to turn into... into an animal?"
Kip frowns thoughtfully at his apple.
Zhi grins at Lotte. "In what way?" His eyebrows twitch as his grin grows.
Lotte asks, "Is there anyone who can change. Into an animal, like a wolf?"
Aiden sighs softly. "Kip, does it really matter which side of the veil we came from?"
Looking more serious, Zhi says "No one I know."
Lotte purses her lips and nods.
Kip sighs, "I don't know."
Aiden says, "We're after the same thing in the end.. We all want to get the Princess back. We'd be a lot better off if we worked together."
Looking uncertain, Kip nods and murmurs, "You may be right."
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