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 Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 3:49 pm
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A good several weeks later and Piper felt she had mostly gotten over that whole . . . apocalypse now thing. Somewhat. Her skin still crawled at the idea that horsemen still lived near them, but what could she do? Just stay in her room and pretend she the world didn't suck more than she thought it did?
Well, the ghoul had tried that, but three days of straight up moping just wasn't her style. It felt good to pity party at the time, but looking back on it just made her cringe at the intensity of teenage angst. Not enough drama, too much self-absorption (the bad kind that is, the kind that was woe is me without any, like, special reasons for it). A few runs and some time in the gym made her feel better, though now Piper wondered if she could ever really amount to as much as she wanted.
Wanting to be a pop star felt so . . . shallow after all of that. There were so many more things in the world than just the media, and she didn't know how to take it in stride.
So instead, Piper stared at the uglysaurus as it gobbled up her cute grumpkings' food instead, watched on by Hati and Skoll with angry, poofed out fur. And then she got a bright idea to occupy herself and found her phone.
Smerdle Text to Brenley:yo b i got your mini eatn me poor so get ovr here n pick up
Quote: Text to Brenley:also im bored fix ittttttt
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 7:26 pm
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It had been a number of weeks since Brenley had received any texts at all, so when a new one arrived unexpectedly he tensed, very nearly sending the wrong bit of FEAR streaming into his boiling mushroom infusion and adding another scar to his collection. It didn't help that this phone was new, a replacement for the one confiscated by Parker Freeman or Mr. Fracs or whatever his name was, and as a result he hadn't yet changed the text alert from the factory default. Its tinny shriek echoed through his plastic-covered work area for the second time, and the boil finally relented, letting his mushroom beaker clatter the short distance to the table with a sigh.
"What?" he asked his phone, his irritation quickly replaced by a cold knot of dread-tinged surprise when he saw who was trying to reach him. Of course it was Piper. She was literally the only person who contacted him this way. Bren read her message slowly, holding back a wince or two at her cavalier approach toward spelling, at least until he figured out what she was trying to tell him. Screech. She had his dromaiusaurus. He couldn't very well ignore her now, could he?
The boil sighed again. Perhaps ignore was too strong a word. He hadn't been actively trying to avoid her, not really, he just hadn't felt ready to face her in the real world after all that had happened recently. Brenley didn't write back, he just doused the flames under his various vials and made his way to her room, knocking softly when he got there.
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 7:54 pm
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Immediately the pair of grumpkings began to mewl and yip, and in seconds they were scratching at the door because hey they knew that scent sort of. Did it mean food? Hopefully it meant food, because they weren't getting nearly as spoiled these days, and not even nipping their master's toes was enough to spark her into her old habits. Piper shooed them away and opened the door, as usual barefoot, perky, cloud-haired, and with a look of annoyance that was familiar.
"It eats too much," she told Brenley, stepping back to let him in and indicating the dromiausaurus by Hati and Skoll's bowls. "Just so yanno." For all her frustration, though, Piper had started becoming a little endeared to the minipet--like a charity case she was grudgingly happy to be a part of.
Her room was as colorful as she was, sparse in furniture but rich in drapes, bean chairs, and intricately designed rugs (despite the fact that her floor was entirely carpeted anyway) that had the seem look as her tattoos. There was a subtle spicy smell in the room thanks to the lit cream candles by the window. Naturally there were posters of various celebrities along her walls, and her desk was entirely taken up by an organized army of hair and skin care products and little jewelry stands. Her eyePod was left strewn with its earbuds on the bed along with an open magazine.
"What's its name anyway?" Piper asked as the grupmkings surged forward to sniff at their visitor. "Me n' Ig were, like, calling it uglysaurus and stuff. But I guess it's cute now. Sorta. If you squint."
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 10:13 pm
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He leaned to one side, squinting past Piper's hair in an attempt to see his minipet from the hall. When he found he couldn't quite manage to do so, Brenley sighed yet again and stepped into her room. He might have been invited, but that didn't mean he was comfortable. Unaware of the ghoul's shoe policy, he kicked his off right inside the door, a gesture he might not have considered making had he been wearing anything more elaborate than simple slippers. His runes extended down over the tops of his naked feet and toes, and today they glowed a faint aqua, though Brenley didn't seem to notice.
"I call him Screech." At the sound of his name, the dromaiusaurus perked up, turning and staring unblinkingly at his owner. A few seconds later he turned away again, abandoning the grumpkings' food to stare at the wall. If the reaper hadn't been sure minipets didn't do such things, Brenley might have thought Screech was giving him the cold shoulder. Burn.
"He's not really... ugly. He's just growing." Screech had been "growing" for the better part of a year now. Bren might have actually conceded to Piper on the ugly front had he not been in such a contradictory mood. Continuing farther into her space, the boil hooked his fingers into the minipet's collar and tried to pull him closer to the door. While the creature was easy enough to pick up, it was clear Screech didn't want to go anywhere. Brenley gave up for the time being, reaching out to briefly pet Skoll and Hati instead.
"Thank you for looking out for him though. And for going through my things." Unlike so many previous attempts, this time the boil managed sarcasm with no difficulty at all. "I hope you and Ignatius gave each other matching tattoos."
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 10:47 pm
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Piper snickered. Screech, yeah, that sounded right--she'd literally yelped upon seeing him the first time, and he did communicate in . . . weird noises. Apparently so did his owner, because Brenley was actually using sarcasm she could detect. Sarcasm. She almost would have been proud if she hadn't been stunned.
"'You're welcome?" Piper said with raised brows. "Uh, sorry for the break in and all, but you weren't, like, answering my texts or anything, okay? We were just trying to figure out where you went. I didn't take anything besides Screech while we were there." This was important to clarify, sadly, with a twinge of guilt in her heart. She still remembered New Years and Kettil's loud yelling, and months later the shame of her sticky hands hadn't left.
Except, why was Brenley mad at her again?
"Shoes off, please and thank you," she prompted in a forcibly upbeat tone, her eyes flickering down briefly before turning back up. Hati and Skoll butted the boil's hand, fighting for attention and nudging his fingers against their horns. "What's Iggy got to do with any of that? I mean, you seen his glowy mark things? Uh-uh. I wouldn't touch him with any needle unless I feel like getting a real afro."
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Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 7:17 pm
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"I didn't mean..." Brenley pat at the grumpkings a few more times before facing Piper again. He tried to look at her properly, but only managed to for a second. It was far easier to keep his gaze near her shoulder instead. "I'm sorry. That was uncalled for. I haven't been..." He waved his hand, abandoning whatever he had been about to say. "I really do appreciate that you were both concerned enough to look." That was what it was, right? Concern? The thought warmed and shamed him in equal measure. Would he have gone looking for her under similar circumstances? He didn't know anymore.
With a small shrug, he forced himself to look up. He was supposed to be playing at acting normal, but he'd been caught off guard by this whole visit. "And I know you didn't take anything. Even if you had felt like using something... well... I could always use more test subjects." Brenley smiled, bringing a hand up to his face as if his amusement had surprised him. He shook his head. "That sounded awful." He cleared his throat, but when he moved his hand away there was still mirth in his eyes.
"So. Um... you said you were bored?" The boil rummaged around in one of the two pouches on his simple belt, but all he came up with were a painted rock and a small plastic baggie of what looked like chocolate candies. "I thought maybe I could help with that, but now I'm not so sure."
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Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 8:46 pm
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Normally Piper would have called him out on the random act of snippiness, but as a person who could flip emotions on a dime herself, and in consideration of everything that had happened (both what she knew and didn't know but really wanted to), she just gave him a sympathetic look. "No, yeah, I get it," she agreed without needing to hear the rest, puffing out a breath of air. "Haven't been either . . ."
At least Brenley wasn't coming in when she was moping, though. That would have been the worst.
She wrinkled her nose and smirked. "Nerrrrrrrrrd. But! There were some pretty neat things in there, so I don't mind if you experiment on me for science or whatever~" The winky face was so tangible it could overlay her actual wink--but at least it was a sign that in spite of her previous reclusive behavior, the ghoul had (mostly) bounced back.
Immediately Hati and Skoll began to raise themselves on their backlegs and sniff at the bag, thinking that perhaps they were right after all: treats!! Piper snickered and nudged them back with a foot. "What were you thinkin', huh?" she asked. "Seriously, I'm all ears. Anything's better than homework right now."
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Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2014 8:35 pm
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A little crestfallen she didn't evoke a stronger reaction than no eye contact, Piper made a note to step up her game in the future. "Why bring 'em if you're not gonna use 'em?" she asked with an amused snort. "You don't tempt a ghoul with what looks like chocolate and then go nope, B-Ren. So mean." Maybe he carried a quarter of his lab with him in that belt! Second mental note: don't eat anything Brenley hands out unless it's guarenteed to be good stuff.
The grumpkings were whining regardless about it, so she scooped them up and soothed them with kisses. "Well, there's, like's . . . catch up to do, huh," Piper said with deliberate slowness, eying him. "Since, yanno, you kind up and disappeared without telling me . . . And then that tower bullshit and all . . ." And then weeks of no contact. It wasn't the most tactful way to approach things, but then again this was coming from the person who thought the best way to handle her anger was to punch things.
She motioned with her head towards the bean chairs. "Wanna sit and explain me a thing? I'll let you take one of these two idiots," she added, the word punctuated with great affection as she rubbed her nose against their cheeks, to one minipet's dismay and another's joy.
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Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 9:46 am
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Bren could think of nothing he wished to do less than explain himself or anything he'd been through. Thoughts of that house and what had gone on there had plagued him ever since he'd returned, no matter how many times Pachua forgave him or how many hateful, accusatory copies of himself he slaughtered. Whenever he was certain he had found a way to feel less monstrous about the whole ordeal, something reminded him that he really was a monster after all.
"I'm sorry," he said for seemingly no reason at all. "Not only for teasing you... um... with phony chocolate, but for not checking in these past few weeks. You always seem to be the one looking for me after strange things happen." He swallowed. "Not that it isn't... nice, it should just go both ways, I think."
After a brief, awkward silence, he shoved the baggie into his pocket and reached for his designated grumpking. He might not have wanted to share what had gone on, but he would make himself do so. If nothing else, he would learn if others would accept what he had done even if he could not. "Sure. Yes. Let's talk." On the ground, Screech let out a low whine, opening and closing his mouth as he did so that the sound came out as a choppy mi mi mi mi mi instead of a steady yowl. Brenley eyed the squishy looking chairs. "Where should I...?" He felt he was setting himself up to look foolish no matter which he chose.
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 5:00 pm
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She flipped between pushing on that "always check up on me" factor and letting it go, then decided to just look pleased with herself that he noticed (and was pleased! hah!). "Damn straight you're sorry." Passing off Hati to Brenley—being that she was the more loving of the pair—Piper proceeded to flop on an orange bean chair and indicated the purple one directly across from her. As Hati began an earnest attempt to lick and sniff the boil's face, Piper reached over and tugged her eyepod by the length of its earbuds over, idly shifting through her library until, five seconds in, she gave up and hit shuffle.
"Maneater" by Skelly Furtado started playing. Vaguely alarmed, the ghoul quickly skipped it, but the next one ("Heartbreaker" by Mariah Scarey) wasn't much better. Finally, she decided to let Justin Timberwolf's "Mirror"start them off, sighed a little, and set the volume low. She wasn't one for silence, and the murmur of music was just enough to comfort her.
"So, uh...I guess we should start with...." Piper stroked under Skoll's horns idly, her brow creasing. "Where were you?" she asked bluntly. "No sign've you for, like, a week and a half or something, and then you just show up in the tower? S'that where you were this whole time?" She actually tried to keep the accusation out of her tone, but the ghoul still took some offense to Brenley's sudden absence even before knowing the why of it. The investigation with Ignatius had pretty much pointed to a forced kidnapping of some sort, or at least a sudden departure, but the fact that Brenley hadn't come look in on her after the nasty desert/tower/pony business might have colored her perception.
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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 9:19 pm
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The purple one. Sure. Bren took a seat on his bean bag with about as much care as Piper had, no longer particularly concerned with what he might look like while doing so. Hati was a very enthusiastic distraction, and much of his focus quickly turned to coming up with a subtle way to block her advances. He pulled his head back, but when he realized his neck was nowhere near long enough to move his face out of the range of her tongue, he resigned himself to it, patting the grumpking gently on the head. He'd had a puggle for years back home, and even though he was out of practice, he wasn't as horrible with small, cuddly animals as he might have been.
Luckily for Piper, the boil didn't have much experience with modern music outside of what he heard at prom, so he didn't wonder at the motivation behind her changing songs, assuming that she just didn't want to hear them. Besides, he was still getting licked. It was enough to keep him occupied indefinitely, vacillating between nudging the minipet and letting her sniff at him. Bren continued petting Hati until Piper spoke, enjoying the calm before the inevitable storm. He wouldn't have stuck around if he hadn't been prepared to answer any questions she had, but the ones she chose to open with coupled with her brusque tone made Brenley tense anyway.
He inhaled, opened his mouth, closed it, and exhaled, trying again with a fresh intake of breath. "I wasn't at the tower until I presume everyone else arrived. I don't even know how I ended up there or got back here from where I was. I had been in a building on an island before that until I dissipated and ended up in... some teacher's office, I guess? I was shaky and hot and he took my phone, so I just slept until I could get up again and then I went back to my room." That didn't explain where he'd been between the tower and now or what he had been doing on an island in the first place, but it was a start. Or was it? "This isn't making any sense. Sorry. Have you ever heard of Parker Freeman?"
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