001. every story is a song // open post.
Take a prompt, take some time, drop in whenever you like.
Take a prompt, take some time, drop in whenever you like.
[ She wanders down long after Cen has left and the noise from Haven has quieted. She smiles when she sees the staff, asks in soft tones if she can steal just one glass and if the bottle she'd purchased and set aside can be brought out.
Side-benefits of being the wife of the proprietor of a club means that the people who help keep things smooth and moving know you, know your habits.
Cisco is grateful. And they know it. It's that month. This is old hat. ( And the fact that Hikaru Shinta passed away only months before makes this year potentially harder. ) ]
Side-benefits of being the wife of the proprietor of a club means that the people who help keep things smooth and moving know you, know your habits.
Cisco is grateful. And they know it. It's that month. This is old hat. ( And the fact that Hikaru Shinta passed away only months before makes this year potentially harder. ) ]
[And thankfully, he's wrapping up his set just as he spots her coming around. It's enough to get him to rush just a little bit, and leave another DJ to end things for the evening/morning.
He approaches quietly, and with a smile.]
Mind if I join you?
[It's been a while for the both of them.]
He approaches quietly, and with a smile.]
Mind if I join you?
[It's been a while for the both of them.]
[ She smiles back, though it doesn't quite reach her eyes. January is the coldest month, moreso when she and Cen part ways as he goes off to deliberately spend the following weeks in Sagada, coming back only when Spring thaws and the twins' birthday approaches. ]
I never mind.
[ She pours him a glass, slides it over. ] I like that new mix you slipped in earlier.
I never mind.
[ She pours him a glass, slides it over. ] I like that new mix you slipped in earlier.
Thanks. I was trying to follow Aidan's advice on something.
[But the truth of the matter was, Rethe had wanted to go for songs that sounded like a nice blend of country/folk/blues and EDM, because Aidan had a fondness for the soulful guitar rifts, the driving beat of the so-called Music of the Devil.
Enough about that, though. He's about as aware of the time as Cisco is, and knows, just as many others know, why she is here and why she is alone.]
When is he going to go?
[There is no point to being graceful for the moment.]
[But the truth of the matter was, Rethe had wanted to go for songs that sounded like a nice blend of country/folk/blues and EDM, because Aidan had a fondness for the soulful guitar rifts, the driving beat of the so-called Music of the Devil.
Enough about that, though. He's about as aware of the time as Cisco is, and knows, just as many others know, why she is here and why she is alone.]
When is he going to go?
[There is no point to being graceful for the moment.]
[ It's not gracelessness. If anything, Cisco prefers that the few who can, call it as it is, rather than tiptoeing around her like she were the type to break.
( Nobody talks about the one they lost. Sometimes, she thinks, it makes it so much harder. )
Cisco pours herself a glass and just knocks back the drink. She lives upstairs, she can afford to get a little buzzed.
It was never her thing to look for the bottle, except that one time in 2025 when 108 had found her humming the quiet, somber strains of the Smith's "Asleep" while watching smoke tendrils ghost between the spaces of her fingers. ]
He, [ she runs a hand through her hair, a pinched look on her face. It's so easy to be honest with Rethe. Just as it is easy to be honest with Aidan. ] He already left.
( Nobody talks about the one they lost. Sometimes, she thinks, it makes it so much harder. )
Cisco pours herself a glass and just knocks back the drink. She lives upstairs, she can afford to get a little buzzed.
It was never her thing to look for the bottle, except that one time in 2025 when 108 had found her humming the quiet, somber strains of the Smith's "Asleep" while watching smoke tendrils ghost between the spaces of her fingers. ]
He, [ she runs a hand through her hair, a pinched look on her face. It's so easy to be honest with Rethe. Just as it is easy to be honest with Aidan. ] He already left.
Ah.
[And all he does, in the next moment, is reach out and cover her hand with his own.]
It's going to be okay.
[A lot of people say that, a lot of people mean it, but when words like that come from Rethe, they might as well be Gospel Truth. And it's because he wouldn't ever say it unless he was certain that it was going to happen.]
Talk to me?
[About anything, about everything, about nothing at all. She needed a human voice and a human ear, and he was quite happy to provide that for her.]
[And all he does, in the next moment, is reach out and cover her hand with his own.]
It's going to be okay.
[A lot of people say that, a lot of people mean it, but when words like that come from Rethe, they might as well be Gospel Truth. And it's because he wouldn't ever say it unless he was certain that it was going to happen.]
Talk to me?
[About anything, about everything, about nothing at all. She needed a human voice and a human ear, and he was quite happy to provide that for her.]
[ She turns her palm upwards and curls her fingers around Rethe's hand.
In the beginning, they hadn't spoken much. By the time she'd come along everyone was gearing up for the battle against Nyx and day after day and week after week it felt like that was all there was to it.
And then after? After there was the Breaking of the Veil, engagements both long and short, a life on the road if not always on call. It would have been perfect -- as perfect as a hunter's life can get, at least until the people you cared about died in a fight miles and miles away and grief crept in to make room for a kind of desperation. ]
I miss him when he's gone. [ A laugh escapes her, an edge of incredulity when she adds: ] I miss him when he's around.
[ News of Hikaru Shinta's death months before had been hard. She didn't think it would be, given that he'd died once before and come back.
But it's never easy. Never. ] We've been sleeping in separate rooms again. [ Her gaze falls to her drink, to the way the light from the bar plays over the amber liquid. ]
In the beginning, they hadn't spoken much. By the time she'd come along everyone was gearing up for the battle against Nyx and day after day and week after week it felt like that was all there was to it.
And then after? After there was the Breaking of the Veil, engagements both long and short, a life on the road if not always on call. It would have been perfect -- as perfect as a hunter's life can get, at least until the people you cared about died in a fight miles and miles away and grief crept in to make room for a kind of desperation. ]
I miss him when he's gone. [ A laugh escapes her, an edge of incredulity when she adds: ] I miss him when he's around.
[ News of Hikaru Shinta's death months before had been hard. She didn't think it would be, given that he'd died once before and come back.
But it's never easy. Never. ] We've been sleeping in separate rooms again. [ Her gaze falls to her drink, to the way the light from the bar plays over the amber liquid. ]
[ Time. They have a lot of it now, and she understands that better than most. The last three years have been kind to them, good in a way that she'd never expected even with the expected hiccup each January and the loss that still feels too soon.
Cen is good to the twins, even asked them to call him "Dad" in that first year home; a thing she'd not allowed herself to think too hard on at first.
She wipes her fingers beneath her eyes and puts on a smile for Rethe. ] Always.
Cen is good to the twins, even asked them to call him "Dad" in that first year home; a thing she'd not allowed herself to think too hard on at first.
She wipes her fingers beneath her eyes and puts on a smile for Rethe. ] Always.
[ She lets the words sink in, allows herself to take comfort that they come from Rethe, who would never say anything unless he was fairly sure that it was true. ]
Do you-- [ she presses an open palm to her forehead; takes a breath, centers her being. ] --does it ever really come easy?
Forgiveness.
It feels like a cop-out, when it does.
Do you-- [ she presses an open palm to her forehead; takes a breath, centers her being. ] --does it ever really come easy?
Forgiveness.
It feels like a cop-out, when it does.
[He's quiet for a while, and it's clear from the look in his eyes that it's because a good part of him is elsewhere, far, far away from their moment together.
When he finally speaks, it's only after he's turned away, and brought out his cigarettes.]
It's only as easy as you make it, and even after you get to that point? [Click, drag, exhale.] It's a process. It never really stops.
[He was speaking from experience this time.]
When he finally speaks, it's only after he's turned away, and brought out his cigarettes.]
It's only as easy as you make it, and even after you get to that point? [Click, drag, exhale.] It's a process. It never really stops.
[He was speaking from experience this time.]
[ He crawls under the baseball field bleachers and tugs absently at the sleeves of his sweater with his thumbs, worrying the fabric.
There's a part of him that feels bad that he'd run off to call Miss Rebecca after Maggie dragged Alan off by the arm, but after he'd seen the bite mark on the other boy's arm, he knew he was right for following his gut.
It's been a tough couple of weeks at home. Worse, somehow, with their mother off on an engagement and though the Dovetailor ( Aunt Sawyer, he reminds himself ) has reassured them that she'll be home soon -- he's not entirely sure that Maggie will last long enough.
It's hard, he knows, living with their uncles. It's not even that they're terrible people, because the Montelibanos aren't, not in the least. Their Tito Chris takes them places, their Tito Tim is a pretty awesome resource since he teaches at their school, and it's hard not to see how much Tito Seb and Tita Giselle enjoy dropping in, since their own kids are more or less grown. It's just that dinner is always so terribly awkward -- at least when their Tito Nathaniel drops in, which, if their Tito Virgil's comment is to be taken into consideration, a lot more than is normal for the Watcher. And while Tito Carlo mediates well enough as the quiet though stern-faced patriarch, in tandem with their doting Nana Rielle... it's just hard.
These people are relative strangers. Family, yes, blood of their blood, true. But strangers in a way that Alistair Mordechai is not.
( Mom had never told stories about them. Not even Tito Chris who was a fox like her; like they could one day be. )
He leans closer to the stands, folds his arms and rests his chin over them, a soft sigh of worry leaving him as he whispers: ]
Please don't eat my sister, Father Clayce.
There's a part of him that feels bad that he'd run off to call Miss Rebecca after Maggie dragged Alan off by the arm, but after he'd seen the bite mark on the other boy's arm, he knew he was right for following his gut.
It's been a tough couple of weeks at home. Worse, somehow, with their mother off on an engagement and though the Dovetailor ( Aunt Sawyer, he reminds himself ) has reassured them that she'll be home soon -- he's not entirely sure that Maggie will last long enough.
It's hard, he knows, living with their uncles. It's not even that they're terrible people, because the Montelibanos aren't, not in the least. Their Tito Chris takes them places, their Tito Tim is a pretty awesome resource since he teaches at their school, and it's hard not to see how much Tito Seb and Tita Giselle enjoy dropping in, since their own kids are more or less grown. It's just that dinner is always so terribly awkward -- at least when their Tito Nathaniel drops in, which, if their Tito Virgil's comment is to be taken into consideration, a lot more than is normal for the Watcher. And while Tito Carlo mediates well enough as the quiet though stern-faced patriarch, in tandem with their doting Nana Rielle... it's just hard.
These people are relative strangers. Family, yes, blood of their blood, true. But strangers in a way that Alistair Mordechai is not.
( Mom had never told stories about them. Not even Tito Chris who was a fox like her; like they could one day be. )
He leans closer to the stands, folds his arms and rests his chin over them, a soft sigh of worry leaving him as he whispers: ]
Please don't eat my sister, Father Clayce.
[He was late, embarrassingly late, so late that Calintz had to proxy for him and keep Aidan company on the inspection of Balamb. In a way, though, this is good: he knows, after all, what happened by now. He knows exactly where Aidan is, who he is talking to, and why.
And that is the reason why he's coming around, pausing just for a moment to watch Renae Montelibano from a safe distance. He can feel the worry emanating from the boy, and is, of course, amused when he picks up on what he says.]
Don't worry about it. Aidan's a nice dragon.
And that is the reason why he's coming around, pausing just for a moment to watch Renae Montelibano from a safe distance. He can feel the worry emanating from the boy, and is, of course, amused when he picks up on what he says.]
Don't worry about it. Aidan's a nice dragon.
[ Cisco hangs her head a little, looks up and straight at the bottles that line the back of the bar without really looking at them so much as past them. ]
He's been so good to the kids. [ The words are soft and she looks back down at her drink, teeth catching at her bottom lip. ]
He's been so good to the kids. [ The words are soft and she looks back down at her drink, teeth catching at her bottom lip. ]
[And he's watching her with a smile, and squeezing her hand.]
He loves them, just like he loves you.
[He wants everything he says and every little gesture he makes to be reassuring. He hopes that she's past the point of taking it.]
If he didn't care... well, neither of you would be in this position right now. Walking away is easy to do, after all.
He loves them, just like he loves you.
[He wants everything he says and every little gesture he makes to be reassuring. He hopes that she's past the point of taking it.]
If he didn't care... well, neither of you would be in this position right now. Walking away is easy to do, after all.
That's true, [ there's a hitch between those two syllables, and she squeezes Rethe's hand back, her free one leaning an elbow on the counter, the fingers idly tracing her brow in a habit she'd picked up sometime between raising the children in backwater Thailand and coming home to Falner.
Her chest doesn't feel quite as tight now, and the room upstairs not so imposing in the fact that everything in it belongs to the man who'd left only hours before.
When she and Cen are okay, it feels like her home away from home.
When they aren't... well.
She clears her throat then and straightens, her hand drawing away from Rethe's so that she can hug herself, elbows planted on the bar as she glances briefly over her shoulder at DJ currently spinning at the booth.
When she comments next, it's not about Cen. She can let the issue lie for now. Rethe was always good company, and the last thing she wanted was to be the consistent wet blanket. ]
I have to plan a themed birthday party. [ She says it with the exasperated tones of a mother who has just been asked the near-impossible. ] They discovered the Doctor Who DVD collection 108 got me years ago.
[ Vintage. The shows from when she was in her twenties are vintage, now. ]
Maggie insists on being Amy. Renae is horrified at how she's declared that he can be Rory.
Her chest doesn't feel quite as tight now, and the room upstairs not so imposing in the fact that everything in it belongs to the man who'd left only hours before.
When she and Cen are okay, it feels like her home away from home.
When they aren't... well.
She clears her throat then and straightens, her hand drawing away from Rethe's so that she can hug herself, elbows planted on the bar as she glances briefly over her shoulder at DJ currently spinning at the booth.
When she comments next, it's not about Cen. She can let the issue lie for now. Rethe was always good company, and the last thing she wanted was to be the consistent wet blanket. ]
I have to plan a themed birthday party. [ She says it with the exasperated tones of a mother who has just been asked the near-impossible. ] They discovered the Doctor Who DVD collection 108 got me years ago.
[ Vintage. The shows from when she was in her twenties are vintage, now. ]
Maggie insists on being Amy. Renae is horrified at how she's declared that he can be Rory.
[And he welcomes the shift because he knows what she is trying to do. He'll accept it, for the moment.]
At least you're now certain that your children have good taste. [Smiling.] That's a bit hard to come by, you know.
[He liked kids. He wasn't ever going to have any of his own, so...]
At least you're now certain that your children have good taste. [Smiling.] That's a bit hard to come by, you know.
[He liked kids. He wasn't ever going to have any of his own, so...]
Edited 2014-01-14 04:42 (UTC)
dear rethe, pls to remember that the whole of falner is pretty much like your nursery.
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kinesthesia
2014-01-15 07:14 am (UTC)(link)
Well, Renae said yes on the one condition that there had to be a functional TARDIS.
[ She is resisting the urge to roll her eyes in amusement.
( Yes. Talk about the children. It was a good enough distraction to feelings she needed to process, the way she did, every.year since they came home. )
She chuckles, though. ]
And then proceeded to ask that since dragons and demons and people with powers like the X-Men existed, would it be entirely possible that Britain's best-kept secret was a man who didn't really die per se, and who travelled a with a quirky blue box.
[ She is resisting the urge to roll her eyes in amusement.
( Yes. Talk about the children. It was a good enough distraction to feelings she needed to process, the way she did, every.year since they came home. )
She chuckles, though. ]
And then proceeded to ask that since dragons and demons and people with powers like the X-Men existed, would it be entirely possible that Britain's best-kept secret was a man who didn't really die per se, and who travelled a with a quirky blue box.
[He's listening to all this with a quiet smile on his face. That smile that tells you that He Knows Something Few Others Know.
Funny, really, to see how influential Doctor Who was as a series. One had to wonder...]
I suppose it could be.
[Graceful, as ever.]
Funny, really, to see how influential Doctor Who was as a series. One had to wonder...]
I suppose it could be.
[Graceful, as ever.]
[ It's a little strange to know that he can't just wander up to the dorms to see Yulia and Stanley right before breakfast anymore. It had never been a thing, really -- they'd all had their morning routines to adhere to -- but the knowledge that the three rooms they'd taken for themselves on that first night at Falner are now free for other people to take makes him feel a little nostalgic.
So he finishes his jog, makes use of Balamb's shower rooms when he's done, and wanders over to the Great Hall for breakfast; where he grabs food, coffee, and settles down to watch something on his tablet, earbuds in place. ]
So he finishes his jog, makes use of Balamb's shower rooms when he's done, and wanders over to the Great Hall for breakfast; where he grabs food, coffee, and settles down to watch something on his tablet, earbuds in place. ]
[ He's actually watching Remember the Titans. He hasn't seen this one in a while, and learning that he could purchase the movie online with barely a fraction of the money he hasn't so much as touched from his universal credit card into his Vice tablet is something that pleases him. Incredibly.
He's quiet though, as he watches a bed-ridden Bertier calling out to the nurse why she can't see the family resemblance between him and his black teammate and finds that he has to pause the movie.
It's hitting a little too close to home.
Funny, that.
So yeah, he's finally noticing that Rethe is behind him and ducking his head sheepishly. ] H-hey.
He's quiet though, as he watches a bed-ridden Bertier calling out to the nurse why she can't see the family resemblance between him and his black teammate and finds that he has to pause the movie.
It's hitting a little too close to home.
Funny, that.
So yeah, he's finally noticing that Rethe is behind him and ducking his head sheepishly. ] H-hey.
[ No need to be though!
This is Josh pulling up a free seat and settling down his earbuds as he offers a smile that's a little less startled. ]
Hey, man. Come sit. [ And because you were looking over his shoulder... ] I can... start the movie from the beginning if you want to watch?
This is Josh pulling up a free seat and settling down his earbuds as he offers a smile that's a little less startled. ]
Hey, man. Come sit. [ And because you were looking over his shoulder... ] I can... start the movie from the beginning if you want to watch?
Edited 2014-02-03 09:54 (UTC)
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