|
Post by Meriel "Dubhiarr" MacNamara on Jun 18, 2010 17:15:43 GMT -5
Dubhiarr unlocked the door and led the way into the room she was sharing with Hitomi and Aritha, looking around in awe. The place was gorgeous. They had an amazing view of outside from the window that took up most of one wall; there was a huge TV on another wall, plus a writing desk and chair, and a very comfy-looking leather chair in a corner between the window and one of two pristine, white-blanketed beds.
Du looked down at her two roommates, grinning as she pocketed her key. "So, how would you like to decide the sleeping arrangements?"
|
|
|
Post by Aritha Bianca Kairavi on Jun 18, 2010 17:24:06 GMT -5
Aritha grinned at the two of them. "I don't exactly sleep, so... I would say that is easy. You each get a bed, I try not to wake you up while I keep myself entertained all night."
She had found actually feeling the weight of her bags a novel experience after months in the eternal twilight of Dunehelden, but had not really packed anything all that heavy, so didn't really have a problem. She'd grown up in the Mediterranean, and knew that she really didn't need all that much to wear at all. Not that temperature horribly affected her anyway, but it was the whole purpose of the thing. She settled herself in one of the chairs by the window, her bags tucked just behind the chair with her.
|
|
|
Post by Hitomi Gilespi on Jun 18, 2010 17:44:47 GMT -5
Hitomi beamed and dropped her bags unceremoniously on the floor near the dresser. Given they were only staying for two nights, she didn't see much reason to unpack everything right away. She would just fish out what she needed as she needed.
"Anyone mind if I steal the bed by the window?" she called, and without waiting for a reply she dashed across the room and pounced on the bed. This room was amazing.
She grinned and looked over at the other girls. "So what are you guys planning for the rest of the day?"
|
|
|
Post by Aritha Bianca Kairavi on Jun 18, 2010 18:15:52 GMT -5
Aritha shrugged slightly and glanced out the window. “Nothing really. I don’t exactly have much in the way of pocket money, and I already have plenty of jewelry and clothing and things anyway. Mostly I think I’ll just try to avoid pricking my fingers while I work on a few projects I brought with me.”
She jumped slightly and pulled her phone out of her pocket, flipping it open. “Zeph? Why are you calling me from the same hotel?”
”I don’t know what room you’re in and I’m being lazy. Didja know your caravan’s in town?” His voice, just barely loud enough for the other girls to hear a voice and not enough to hear words, was rather smug.
Aritha jumped to her feet and leaned against the glass, looking out over the city. She clapped her hands in delight, and had to dive for the phone before it hit the ground. “No, I didn’t. Papa’s letter had reached me yet. Are you going?”
”Dunno yet. I’ll probably ask, but depends on if Miss Ellie will let me go. If I can, I will though.”
Aritha smiled and nodded, though she knew Zeph obviously couldn’t see her. “Alright then. I’ll see if Professor Mervielle-Dion will let me go, and if you can go, we can go together! Oh, hang on… how did you know?”
”Sounds good. See you in a bit then, Lady White,” Zeph said, then paused. “Oh, right. They just got in yesterday, they were on the news when I flipped it on. Anyway, my goal is to avoid my brothers as much as possible so… yeah, I’ll do my best to go with you. Talk to you later, Aritha.” He hung up.
Aritha put her phone away and turned to her roommates. “How would either of you like to go see a real gypsy caravan and carnival?” she asked, grinning widely. “I’m bringing Rudeth if I get permission… Besides, it’s been forever since I saw my Papa. You’d be more than welcome, and anyone you wanted to bring.”
|
|
|
Post by Meriel "Dubhiarr" MacNamara on Jun 18, 2010 19:08:11 GMT -5
Dubhiarr looked up with interest, and grinned at the idea. "That sounds awesome. I wish Nina were here, I bet she'd love it too. I'll have to get her a souvenir," she smiled, recalling the promise she'd made to Nina the night before leaving for the trip.
|
|
|
Post by Aritha Bianca Kairavi on Jun 18, 2010 19:14:32 GMT -5
Aritha grinned. "Oh, there'll be plenty to give as souvenirs, and I'll even get them at proper prices for you," she gave Du an impish grin. "I'll point out you aren't a mark. Then they'll charge you a more normal price."
|
|
|
Post by Meriel "Dubhiarr" MacNamara on Jun 18, 2010 19:22:17 GMT -5
Dubhiarr nodded, then blinked at the odd term Aritha used to describe her.
"Tell them I'm not a what?" she asked, eyebrows quirking in confusion.
|
|
|
Post by Aritha Bianca Kairavi on Jun 18, 2010 19:34:26 GMT -5
Aritha shook her head. "It's what anyone not part of the carnival is. A mark. Or, if you will, a target. It's not meant to be really insulting, it's just the way they think. It's sort of a 'one of us or not' kind of thing. It's nothing to be worried about."
She smiled again, sitting back down. First she'd let Professor Mervielle-Dion get settled before she ran off to pester him. Besides, they were still setting up the carnival. "It likely won't be open for a few hours yet, anyway. Gypsies tend to be a nocturnal lot. It's probably part of why Papa and I can live with them so easily."
|
|
|
Post by Meriel "Dubhiarr" MacNamara on Jun 18, 2010 19:43:04 GMT -5
"Ohh, gotcha." Dubhiarr set her bags down beside her bed and sat down on the bed, crossing one leg over the other. "Have you always lived with the Romani?" She didn't much like the word "gypsy"; it had a bit of a racist bent to it.
|
|
|
Post by Aritha Bianca Kairavi on Jun 18, 2010 19:45:16 GMT -5
The vampire paused and smiled. "Yes, I have. I didn't think you'd actually know the proper term. Most don't, so I've learned it's usually just easier to say 'gypsy'. There are worse terms after all. And I actually am Romani. It's a bit distant on my mother's side, since my father is fully vampire, and my mother nearly so, but it's enough."
|
|
|
Post by Meriel "Dubhiarr" MacNamara on Jun 18, 2010 19:51:30 GMT -5
Dubhiarr smiled and nodded. "I see." She had noticed that Aritha was not quite as pale as vampires tended to be; Stephen was kind of the same way, but he had more human in him than Aritha did, and his human ancestors were Caucasian.
"How old are you, Aritha?" she asked curiously. "You don't look much older than sixteen, maybe eighteen at the most."
|
|
|
Post by Hitomi Gilespi on Jun 18, 2010 20:34:25 GMT -5
Hitomi peered up through the curtain of her hair as she attempted to smooth down the knots, half-listening to the two girls and contemplating where to go for breakfast. She wrinkled her nose a little at the word "gypsy". She knew Aritha certainly didn't mean anything by it, and few people actually knew another name for them so she supposed it was natural to use the word, but that didn't mean she liked it.
"My grandmother is Rroma." She flipped her hair back over her shoulder and turned toward the two girls. "She lived in the Ukraine while she was a girl."
She wasn't sure whether she wanted to go to the carnival or not. On the one hand, it sounded like a bit of fun, but she really would like to spend the day shopping and getting to see the Greek culture, and she had a feeling the carnival was going to be a bit...theatrical. And Hitomi would kill for some baklava.
|
|
|
Post by Aritha Bianca Kairavi on Jun 18, 2010 20:58:37 GMT -5
Aritha winced and sighed. She managed to offend them both, and she actually LIVED with Roma. Apparently she was going to have to worry about more than waking her roommates with her own nocturnal activities. She turned back to the window.
"Yeah, I'm seventeen. I probably won't age much more, at least judging by what I remember of my mother, but since I was born this way, I did have to do some aging," she said with a hint of a smile. Her eyes traced the buildings, wondering where exactly her caravan had set up. Suddenly she was feeling homesick. Nearly homesick enough to give up on returning to school. But her father would not appreciate that after all they'd had to do just to make it possible for her to enter Dunehelden. Hopefully just visiting him would help her feel better.
|
|
|
Post by Alex Meriweather on Jun 30, 2010 23:32:32 GMT -5
________
About fifteen minutes after the explosion, Hitomi received a text message:
can i come talk to you? you're going to be made, and i did somethin stupid, but i don't know what else to do.
|
|
|
Post by Hitomi Gilespi on Jun 30, 2010 23:42:54 GMT -5
Hitomi blinked, opening her phone. Alex. Which meant... Shit. What on earth did the two of them do?
Yeah, sure. I'll come open the door.
Hitomi jumped off of the bed, her flannel pajamas flapping against her ankles as she made for the door and flung it open.
|
|
|
Post by Alex Meriweather on Jun 30, 2010 23:44:11 GMT -5
Alex soon came shuffling around the corner, hands in his pockets and face flushed purple-red.
"Sorry," he said softly. "I didn't wake you up, did I?"
|
|
|
Post by Hitomi Gilespi on Jun 30, 2010 23:47:14 GMT -5
"No, I was just--" She shook her head slightly. "That's not important. Alex, what happened?" She glanced back in the room, then at Alex. "Do you want to talk here, or somewhere else? I don't know when Dubhiarr and Aritha will be back."
|
|
|
Post by Alex Meriweather on Jun 30, 2010 23:55:08 GMT -5
Alex shrugged. "You're really going to want to hit me, so, uhm, wherever?" He tried to smile, but it just came off as exhausted.
"Hitoshi and I had a fight... obviously, I mean."
|
|
|
Post by Hitomi Gilespi on Jun 30, 2010 23:57:42 GMT -5
Hitomi nodded slightly, moving aside to let him in the room. She closed the door, then latched it. If Aritha or Dubhiarr came back in the next...however long, they could knock. Whatever this was, it wasn't any of their business.
"Sit down," she said quietly. "I'm sure you're blowing this out of proportioner." Hitomi tried to smile and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Start from the beginning."
|
|
|
Post by Alex Meriweather on Jul 1, 2010 0:04:18 GMT -5
Alex sat down and grimaced.
"We were eating a late dinner," he began, staring at the wall. "We talked about things, and he asked if I still wanted to talk about Blaise- this morning I'd said I would answer his questions, and whatever. It..." Alex sighed.
"He asked if I liked Blaise better than him, and I went off on him. I... said a lot of things, called him co-dependent and that he was just using me because I was safe. He told me I was being selfish, then... Blaise texted me for some reason and he grabbed the phone. I got angrier. I asked, what do you want, a wedding ring, and he said..."
"He said I dumped him just because I, god forbid, thought I might like him. And." He braced himself for this, actively not looking at Hitomi. "I... I did not... mean it like that but I said something about coping with loss. And he took that as..."
|
|
|
Post by Hitomi Gilespi on Jul 1, 2010 0:07:35 GMT -5
Hitomi's eyes widened, and one hand flew to her mouth. "Alex, you didn't..." she murmured. She shook her head slightly. "You didn't. Please, please tell me you didn't."
She was quiet for a moment, biting her lip. "And...and what did he say after that?" Hitomi asked quietly. "Or did he say anything?"
|
|
|
Post by Alex Meriweather on Jul 1, 2010 0:09:13 GMT -5
Alex hid his eyes behind his hand.
"He said that if wishing that he had never met me would bring his mother back, he would do it in a heartbeat."
|
|
|
Post by Hitomi Gilespi on Jul 1, 2010 0:16:20 GMT -5
"I'm sorry if this sounds bitchy, but if you actually said what it sounds like you said, you kind of deserved that," she said quietly. "There are a lot of things you could have said, but that..." She shook her head slightly.
"I don't know what to say, except that if you ever said something like that to me, I'm not sure I could forgive you. And I'm not one to hold grudges."
|
|
|
Post by Alex Meriweather on Jul 1, 2010 0:24:41 GMT -5
He sighed roughly and sniffled.
"It was really, really stupid. I knew that two seconds after it left my mouth. I don't- I didn't want to hurt him like that. It just pisses me off so much that he's so- fucking obsessed with Blaise, and oh no, he'll die without me." Alex rubbed his nose.
"It's not fair of me. I know. I want to make it up to him, I realize, after all this, I care about him a lot. But I want to do it without spending every day wondering if he really cares about me or if I'm just his emotional stress ball. Without being judged eternally for going out with some guy just because I thought he was cute."
"But now he's hurting, and..."
|
|
|
Post by Hitomi Gilespi on Jul 1, 2010 0:41:53 GMT -5
Hitomi really wanted to hug her brother, and just pretend they were kids again, and she was the one who was hurting. She wanted him to the be the one to chase away the monsters, because he was supposed to be the strong one, not her. But he wasn't there, so she did the next best thing, and wrapped her arms around Alex and buried her face in his shoulder.
"He does have issues with loss. He still hasn't completely gotten over Mom. He won't even speak about Thrall yet, and they weren't even that close." She sniffled slightly. "He hasn't let in anyone since she died. He barely even communicates with me, let alone anyone else. And then you..." She shook her head slightly. "You're the first person I've really seen him open up to. And I know it's not your responsibility to fix him or anything, but...he's sixteen. He's young. He's entitled to a few issues. He'll work through them."
She pulled back a bit and wiped her nose on her sleeve. "I have my issues, too, you know. I've been so horribly jealous of him. He's so good at everything he tries, and I'm...just... " She shook her head. "When Mom first died, I was scared, and I thought I was going crazy. I kept seeing things... But he was there for me. There were times when there was no one else there for me. He took on so much responsibility... Tristan wasn't around much, and he had no idea how to take care of us. Hitoshi cooked, he cleaned, he helped me with my homework... He was forced to grow up so fast. I don't think I understand just how much that affected him. That he wasn't getting over it faster, just that he was just...pushing it away. That I was dealing with it, and he wasn't."
She wrung her hands in her sleeves and picked at the threads. "The best advice I can give is to try and make up with him while the wound is fresh. If you let it fester, it's just going to turn to hate. And I really don't want him to hate you."
|
|