Bite they little heads off! Nibble on they tiny feet!

[baedalites]

Who: EVERYONE.
What: Catenrat party.
Where: The Apache and surrounding environs.
When: Givdi the 22nd of Toidaren
Notes: The topic threads are just suggestions; if you've got somewhere else that your characters simply must be, make your own thread. When your characters are ready to leave, they'll be given a little wooden cheese, a glass fish, and a voucher for a big basket of snacks.
Warnings: None yet. Please put warnings up on individual threads.

The Apache is much the same as it always is: dimly lit, with the jukebox playing in the background, and the bartender serving whatever's on tap. Above the doorway and wound through a few of the sets of antlers some enterprising soul has placed a garland decorated with little blue and green fish.

Comments

[rhinemaid]

It's cooler and quieter outside than the bar itself, and more private than the courtyard that's still busy; it feels like more or less what Ilde needs after the film ends and she excuses herself quietly from Ivan's side for a while. She doesn't bother putting a coat over her dress, built to suit cold weather and prone to finding her feet slightly damp regardless of what she's wearing or where she is.

A rhinemaiden thing, she explained once to one of her students.

After a few moments in the quiet, she lights a cigarette (pack lifted from Ivan's jacket as she slipped out).

[wearethewilds]

Unlike Ilde, Hilmi is dressed warmly. Tonight it's simply a warm wool coat around 'going-out clothes'. He doesn't put a lot of thought into these things.

When Ilde leaves the bar, he follows her. This is the opportunity Hilmi has been waiting for: a quiet moment removed from the crowd wherein he can corner Ilde and find out where she's been. She was supposed to be home on whatever passed for Sunday around here. It's now Wednesday. Worse, he hasn't heard from her. Ilde isn't his girlfriend to monitor, but she's the closest he has to family - and if there's one thing Hilmi hated as a child, it was the adults not doing the things they said they would. He's finding Sonja and Ilde are the adults in this situation, and Ilde is dropping the ball.

Clearly, then, something is wrong with the world. (The irony of that idea isn't lost on him.)

He sidles up beside her and, instead of immediately pressing for information, produces his own cigarette. "Got a light?"

[rhinemaid]

"--Hilmi." The startle is subtle, but that's her all over; everything is understated until it isn't any more. People are used to her being so still, but the way she absents herself is more noticeable right now, a more palpable sense of distance that she's still edging back from, and she's not quite there yet. Not quite present.

"Right," half to herself, and then she holds out her lighter. "Yes."

[wearethewilds]

He doesn't let her light for him; he takes it from her, his eyes on her face rather than the exchange. For a moment, his brows draw together in a markedly clear expression of confusion and concern. Not something others get, this openness. There is the Hilmi who lures unsuspecting women to bed and disappears afterward, and then there's the Hilmi who is, right now, growing steadily more worried about his not-friend.

"Thanks." He turns away to cup the end of his cigarette as he lights it, inhales, puffs, draws the lighter away and takes a long drag before releasing a stream of mingled smoke and condensation. It doesn't occur to him to treat her like one of the Manhattan people, using subtlety and subterfuge to maneuver her into talking. Instead, he holds her lighter hostage as though it might keep her from stomping off and is very nearly accusatory when he comments, "You didn't come back on Shundi."

[rhinemaid]

It's more of an accusation than a question, and so Ilde opts not to treat it as the latter; the fingers of one hand curl under her palm, tightly, and her expression blanks interestingly. No distress, no upset, but no response, either, just-- cool distance, like she's not even there.

"No," she says, matter of fact, her eyes on his hands and her lighter. A pause, quieter, "No."

Explaining this is not something she really wants to have to do, but she's not entirely sure how to get out of this conversational pot hole again; it's much easier if she can make sure people don't notice anything in the first place. That's how it usually works. She's good at deflecting, when she's more in control of what people see, but the absence of any reaction is indicative of just how uncomfortable she is.

"I...decided to stay. For a while."

[wearethewilds]

The fact that Hilmi notices the way her expression blanks and thinks nothing of it is just another tally mark for him either in his complete inability to be empathetic with his comrades or in the long column dedicated to self-centered behavior.

He does better with words than with reading emotions - and it is he reply that puts him off lecturing her about keeping her promises or some other such silly concept. There's something wrong with how she's responding, even if he can't put his finger on it.

So he goes for the most obvious route: asking. "You okay?"

He asks curiously, with a hint of concern he rarely shows anyone, much less Ilde, whom he once called a bitch for some stupid reason or another, who cockblocks him and makes him feel guilty for enjoying his privileges in life, who drives him up a wall and makes him hate whatever the hell his life has become. Ilde, who is screwing a vampire and is right now very much and very obviously not okay. "You seem upset."

[rhinemaid]

The attempt she makes at a half-way reassuring smile here is small and taut, if not outright unconvincing. There's a brittle-thinness to her mood and manner, a tightrope walker made of glass, and it's not as well-hidden as she'd ordinarily like.

"I'm fine," she says, because she always does, "It's just a little busy in there for me." That's almost normal. Finding the quietest place at a party was a knack even before she started feeling the need to do it for her own mental health. She's slipped out of parties in Baedal before just because there were so many people-- she feels oddly reassured by her reasoning, even if it doesn't release any tension.

[wearethewilds]

Hilmi studies her long enough without smoking that when he finally remembers to ash, the cigarette's a quarter wasted. He looks away and gives it a practiced flick with his thumb.

"You know," he starts with a frown, "If you need to talk..."

The offer hangs there. It's not a good offer; it's rather the sort given by someone who doesn't know how to handle being a shoulder to cry on. If she needs to talk, he'll listen, but he's not sure what he can do to help.

[rhinemaid]

What it lacks in general usefulness, it slightly makes up for in 'being startling' and 'evident sincerity'; Ilde scrutinizes him like she's trying to find a flaw in that, momentarily bewildered by the attempt at thoughtfulness. That, at least, is more commonplace than not -- Ivan's remarked how she always seems disappointed when she can't pick holes in something he's just said, and he's not wrong. In this case, though, it's more momentary puzzlement as it dawns on her that he doesn't appear to be screwing with her.

"...thank you," she says after a moment, with some effort; she wants to dismiss it out of hand, she wants to say I don't need that because she doesn't, she's fine, she'll be fine, there are so many ways in which this is not a subject open for discussion. She also, on the other hand, wants to continue poking Hilmi in the direction of decency, and not discourage any efforts he makes on his own. Like 'caring about her', however odd and unexpectedly.

She exhales smoke, wrapping her free hand around herself, and says, "It's okay." It's not. "But thank you. I'll probably be home tomorrow."

[wearethewilds]

Stubbing out his half-finished cigarette - a sign of wastefulness he hasn't yet managed to overcome - he then shoves his hands in the pocket of his coat. He no longer wants to be out here because this is awkward for him. Ilde is one of two constants here in Baedal for Hilmi, and she is behaving oddly. He wants to go back inside where there's too much noise and too large a crowd and lose himself in it so he doesn't have to think about why the woman beside him is so obviously not here.

But he can't just leave. It isn't concern, but his own pressing need for reassurance. "You sure about that?"

Promise? he means. If he were a child, he would sound wheedling and hopeful. Instead, his query is just...dubious.

[rhinemaid]

"Tomorrow," she repeats, trying to sound slightly more solid in her decision; she can't hide at Ivan's forever, after all. (If they were ever moving in together, Ilde accepts it as a given that he'd be obliged to move in with her; his apartments are about as personally significant as hotel rooms.) "I'll see you at home in the morning."

[wearethewilds]

That satisfies him enough for the moment; Hilmi is quite a simple creature, or so he believes of himself. Though there is some niggling doubt in the back of his mind (something is wrong, very wrong) he decides it's probably just the time and place and possibly Ilde's period.

Or something.

In any case, he's off the hook where emotional support is concerned, so he gives her a fleeting smile in lieu of a farewell and turns to head back in.