Advice

[Roderic]

< Ric > I’m staring down at my phone at the same number I’ve pondered texting or calling for the last twenty-two minutes. Everyone has their problems and their own issues, I’m not special. I know she’s probably got a lot of things going on in her life, which would explain why Jules has been so quiet on all fronts. Nothing on the Hawthorne Crownet and as a plus, nothing in my brain lately either.

Truth was that if I knew what to do next, I wouldn’t even be bothering Jules. I like my space and I don’t mind the quiet, eve if that might mean something is going on somewhere. It’s not normal for chicks to not talk or make their presence known in some way for this long. She might think I’m mad at her for the River thing and that might explain it. That’s probably why she’s stayed quiet. I’m over it. River is alive and didn’t die. I wasn’t pleased with Jules or Doc, but River’s a tough cookie. She managed out just fine in the end and reminds me of, well...me. Only a chick me. As disturbing a thought as that is. I push Jules name and hit message and send her a message.

I have a situation and need a person’s advice. You free? I hit send without reviewing the message. I say what I say, because I mean it. There’s no reason to reread my words and second guess what I wrote. I do need advice and I do have a situation. Not a problem, but a situation. The problem part if behind me, I need to what to do now that the problem is done with.


<Jules> She had been dealing with customers and trying to finish the rest of her orders after closing Rayney Days and Fabrics. It hadn’t been something she’d wanted to do, but eventually, they had to close for her to reopen Blackadder. Her clinic had been something that she missed and although Cassadee hadn’t been capable of anything in the medical department, her business degree was good enough so that Juliet could do her own thing again.<p>

And because of it, after winning in the battle with Black Heart, she had grown quiet. Occasionally, she would look at Hawthorne but find herself with nothing more to say and her attention would go elsewhere. When she wasn’t working, she was training harder. After River nearly dying, and the fact she herself hadn’t been the best with fighting, it was something she wanted to change. Something she wanted to improve. She’d always been good with a rifle, but good wasn’t always great and there was nothing wrong with getting better. Shooting her brother in the groin hadn’t been her best shot, either.<p>

The click of her fingertips against the keyboard was interrupted as her phone began to play You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch signaling that she’d gotten a text from Ric and Juliet moved to collect the device. She tilted her head, reading it over before typing out a response. Yeah, where would you like to meet? Pressing send, she scooted back in her chair and scratched at her neck lightly as she heard one of her employees call out for Cassadee. “You’re the manager, you can do it without me!”

< Ric > I was still sitting on the couch in my hut when the text came through. I hadn’t really been doing anything tonight, or any night since my life transitioned into whatever it was now. Reading and killing things primarily, but even the latter was less likely than the former. I had no sense of direction on what to do or what I should be doing. I told Thing One, who claimed I appeared ‘down’ what was going on-well, the basic gist of it, but left out most details. It was simple and to the point, nothing else was needed. SIster B was dead and Skylar left. Or just stopped coming home. Or whatever this was.

I read the message and then shrugged. I don’t know where to meet for something like this. I don’t want everyone knowing because it’s not their business. We can’t meet here, even though It’s private enough and a place where I’m comfortable at. So I need some place private and low key. Abandoned school near Westwall. It’s all I say and the only place I can think of. No one really goes there but the occasional hobo, and I can chase them out before Jules gets there.

With the message sent, I stand, grab my leather cut from the chair to the right of the couch, slide into it and pocket the phone in my back, left pants pocket. I slide into my boots that are by the door and then head out of the hut. I take it down to a portal and then find myself outside at a train station. I don’t take the train, instead I start walking away from it to a small convenience store. I need cigarettes first, since I only have two left in the soft pack that’s in the inner pocket of my coat. I head in, ask for a pack, pay and that’s just how simple it is. I stuff it in with the other pack, head west until no one is around and then teleport outside the old school in Westwall. I look around, then go inside the parking lot meant for staff once upon a time and stand outside the building waiting for Jules.


<Jules> As it turned out, the staff member couldn’t deal with an unruly customer which simply ended up with security escorted them out before Juliet returned to her office to wait for an answer. The neat feel of her office hadn’t changed even after her death - everything had it’s place, there was a hammock still in the corner for the days she didn’t feel like trekking back to her boat and through a door, a shower could be accessed. Comfort had been what she wanted, but privacy had ended up being the best function.

It was a place to escape.

Or, at least it had been a place to escape. Now, it was just her workspace and occasional bedroom. When the song went off again, Juliet dug the device from her pocket once more and looked it over. Westwall wasn’t too far of a walk and she knew her brother would be punctual himself. “Heading out.” She called, picking up her jacket and removing the small pocket pistol from her desk before tucking it away. Juliet typed out a response, “Be there soon.” pressing send shortly after as she waved to the cashier - new, her name still tended to escape the brunette’s mind.

It didn’t take long for Juliet to reach the transit that would take her to Westwall, and then from there, the woman hurried in the direction of the school. She didn’t often come to that side of town, lately it had been from River Rock to Redwood, to Bullwood and over to the Caverns and back, and because of such, it took her a few minutes longer than she would have liked - but when she stepped inside, Juliet called out, “Ric!”

< Ric > Jules is inside, I hear her voice echoing off the walls inside of the building. She must have went in a side door, or been ballsy and went in the front one. Good for her, whichever the case may be. She snuck in past me. The thought made my lips curl up just a little bit.

“Here.” I say as I crawl through a window that had been damaged, boarded up, pulled down, boarded up, and pulled down again. It seemed people got tired of boarding these windows up-not that I blame them. Why continually spend money and resources on something that’s never going to be operational? My crawling wasn’t as I imagined it to be, I didn’t calculate for someone’s crap to be near the window, so my arm slipped out from under me due to the torn and tattered blanket that was under it, along with a couple of pop and beer cans. “Living the dream.” I mutter to myself as I slide, then rolled away from someone’s crap. “I’ll come to you.” I don’t actually know where she is yet, but I’ll hit a hallway soon enough and go from there.

[Juliet]

<Jules> She set her hand softly on the butt of her pistol, keeping her hand on it even after she heard her sibling’s voice in response. It was a comforting sound, but as she took in the amount of damage, the woman didn’t bother to let her guard down. She lifted her eyebrow at the sound of beer cans crushing and she moved until she heard his reply. “Well, that makes things easier.” She pressed her lips lightly together.

Focusing on tracking, she closed her eyes and tried to track the man down until realizing he wasn’t close enough. A moment later, she began to hum a perky upbeat tune. Or at least, she began to hum Pitbull and whistled a few bars as she took her phone out from her pocket and turned on the flashlight function. Despite the fact she would be able to see fine in the dark, the act itself was one from habit as she took in her surroundings. “So why an abandoned school house?” She called.

< Ric > I make it out into the hallway as Jules asks me about the location. I stop, grab the opened pack of Red’s, put it in my mouth, grab my nondescript, red colored lighter and light the thing. “Were you hoping to meet at a dance club? Maybe go to the movies?” I ask in a normal tone, as if she were standing across from me in the hallway in the other room just slightly adjacent to this one.

“Why not?” I ask her in return as I leave the classroom and start listening for signs of her, or anyone else in here. “Because it’s abandoned.” I admit to Jules as I head north down the hallway, my head glancing from room to room as I pass them by, the numbers decreasing in value with each step I take towards where the office is apparently located. Which meant the front door shouldn’t be too far from the office. “Marco.” I call out. If I know this game, I’m sure Jules does too. Anyone should.

<Jules> “If I ever see you in a dance club, I’d probably question if you lost a dare or were searching for someone to kill.” She admitted, the idea of him in somewhere where people were heavily crowded and in close quarters was amusing. She couldn’t really picture it, not without the man being pulled there against his will. “The movies would be interesting, we still never had our movie night.” She lifted her phone in the direction she heard his voice, or at least where she thought she had heard and stepped forward, moving around an overturned desk.

Her shoulders shrugged, it wasn’t something she expected. Though, she supposed it should have been something she expected from him of all people. “The woods, actually, had been where I thought.” She explained and then blew her bangs out of her face. “Polo.” She chimed automatically and stopped walking once she stepped into the beginning of a hall. It was the same in Spanish as it was in English.

< Ric > The woods had been in my mind, but the fact was there were those fae things in there and I’m not going to risk my life, let alone someone else’s life that I’m more or less in charge of. People that depend on me to keep them out of trouble and keep them safe. “I remember. But I don’t like movies.” It’s true, I don’t and she knows this too.

I hear her reply of polo and then head down the hall away from the office and down another hall. “Marco.” I call out again as I look at her at the end of the hallway. I wave to Jules and then head in her direction. “I wanted us to be alone.” That sounded ominous, maybe. If I was a stranger, but I doubt she would find it to be like that.

<Jules> There weren’t many times when Juliet could say that being somewhere in a dark building bothered her, at least not when Ric was around. Didn’t help that she knew her brother could kick any *** without any hesitation, really. “I remember that. I could only see you in there for the dark and the need to keep me quiet and entertained.” Her boots scraped across the littered floor, an overturned book causing her to frown as she knelt down to pick it up. Charles Dickens. Reading the author, she decided to tuck it away into her pocket for later.

“Polo.” She replied automatically, her green eyes lifting as she returned the wave before turning her phone off and looked around while she waited for him. “That would be a clue to run if it were anyone else but you. Or at least a clue to take out my knife before someone else did.” She gave a small smile and a shake of her head, “What’s up?”

< Ric > “I’ll give you a few seconds to decide if you should, or shouldn’t run.” I quirk a small grin at Juls before she shook her head and asked what was up. What was up? I’m not sure how to phrase what is up, exactly. A lot of stuff. “You saw what I posted about Sister B.” I stated in a matter of fact way, knowing she did. She had replied to it with a sorry. “She’ll come back and be alright some night. I suck. As a sire. I suck with people in general.” I admit and then shrugged my shoulders. I doubt it would change, but I know I won’t be siring any time soon. If ever again. I decided that last night. Thing one is always pissed at me for some reason or another and with Sister B...and Ashby. All of them are connected to one singular thing and that was me.

I rub at my hair with my left hand a couple times before I go on. “I think I am okay with that. Know what to do. Have assessed the situation and all the variables. But.” I look at Jules and drop my hand. “There are other things. Without common variables. I don’t know how to make sense of things that vary.” She won’t understand me, I’m starting to realize, so I stop what I’m saying and try again. “Skylar has been...absent and unreachable for almost three months now. So, I’m stuck because everything about this entire situation is not logical. The patterns are sporadic and make little sense.”

<Jules> “It’s easier to stay. You hurt me, I’ll at least get a few shots in.” She shrugged, offering a smirk. When she fell quiet, it was clear she was thinking. “You aren’t the traditional sire, Ric, but you don’t suck at it. You’ve been more of a sire to me than Phoenix ever had simply by being there without me needing to ask.” She said quietly, moving to sit down deciding to start with that after being silent for a few moments. “You’ve never not been there for me.” Juliet shrugged off her jacket and then looked up at him. “There’s nothing wrong with not being able to deal with people.” She leaned back and lifted her eyebrow as she was confused and it was clear on her expression.

At the mention of Skylar, Juliet tilted her head. She remembered back to the email and thought it was strange. “In other words, you’re lost because your wife has essentially vanished off the face of the earth and you have no idea how to handle it because you don’t get why she left?” She squinted slightly, trying to consider the words that Ric had been speaking. Digging her keys out of her pocket, she idly toyed with the rabbits foot that still sat on her keychain.

< Ric > I’m not looking for her affirmation on the siring front, even if she thinks that’s what I need. I won’t tell Jules that-chicks do that stuff all the time. Try and make people feel better or argue with them. Jules is hardly ever the latter. “My way of dealing with people isn’t the popular kind.” I remind her with a small chuckle, a quick one and then shrug.

“I’m not lost.” I tell her, and I think it’s true, but I’m actually not sure. I’ve done stuff for Tytonidae and done stuff. Like read and...well read and kill stuff. I’m not lost on what’s important to me anyways. “And I’m handling it.” I also interject that into her mind while I think on how to phrase things. “I’m uncertain. What people do in these kinds of scenarios. I...this is unfamiliar territory for me.” I tell her as I take a deep inhale in of the cigarette I’ve barely smoked while searching for Jules and then look around. “I don’t want to have sex.” I tell her, after my revelation about Doc and this fuckable conversation from the night before.

<Jules> “People either can handle the way you do, or they can forget it.” She shrugged, it wasn’t something she minded. Ric was Ric. He was a bit abrasive, alright, a lot abrasive, but everyone had their threshold levels when it came to individuals. Her tolerance of people varied. Exceptions were always made.

Crossing her legs, she watched him and bounced the rabbit’s foot up and down in her hands, playing catch with herself. “Well, unfortunately I’ve got little advice that’s considered sane. You, yourself, thought I was stupid for wanting to wait.” She shook her head and caught the foot in her left hand. “I figured you would handle it, Ric. You always do.” Wetting her lips, Juliet asked, “Do you love her?” And then she lifted an eyebrow, “Sex isn’t on the table and that doesn’t always fix everything. You better not have told me to meet you here for that.”