me and lazarus, we shovel all the ashes out

[gramarye]

Who: Wolfgang & Ilde
What: Some things with teeth are less dangerous than others.
Where: Somewhere along the river. Raven's Gate?
When: A few days after Badblood? Sometime? I DON'T KNOW STOP JUDGING ME GOD
Notes: None
Warnings: None

Wolfgang supposes he ought to be grateful he got out of that mess with only minor injuries -- a sprained wrist, currently in a splint for the next four days, and some minor gnawing on his shoulder and not, thankfully, his throat -- but for the most part he's focusing on how stupid he is. Of course he's stupid, running off into danger instead of stopping to think. Which would be a novel idea, really. Thinking before leaping. He is aware, dimly, that this tendency in himself got him in a lot of trouble when he was small -- but he can't remember the specifics, just that he's spent the last twenty years being berated by both parents for being reckless. Oh, well, he didn't die, maybe this time he'll finally take this as the learning opportunity it should be.

But none of his injuries were bad enough to keep him from work, thankfully, because he'd go crazy having to stay at home and do nothing. He needs to do a lot of things -- shop for furniture and clothes, etc, not to mention start poking around for medicinal options -- but he's not getting his next paycheck for another week and a half, so all that's impossible right now. With no friends and nothing to do, he's a bit out of sorts as to what to do with himself, especially at night. A lot of places are still open, but he's still broke. He's taken to walking around the city instead, wandering around and trying to familiarize himself with it -- that's the quickest way he knows of learning a new city, getting lost. And he's had a lot of practice at it.

It's verging on ridiculously late and he's ditched the bike the city brought with him -- riding it being too complicated with his wrist -- and opted to go for a walk instead, hoping maybe he'd tire himself out faster and be able to sleep. So far, no dice. It's late when he comes across a bunch of water -- which, not new, there's a ton of water everywhere in this city -- and catches, out of the corner of his eye, a familiar face. Ilde -- he knows her; they spoke briefly, she seemed to recognise him (how, he's not sure), she seems nice, he was worried after the Incident when he'd seen her post, but hadn't had time to respond. "Ilde," he calls, then hesitates.

Comments

[rhinemaid]

It's not his voice that she hears - she doesn't hear it, she's above the water when he calls - but she notices the hair and then remembers that she knows the person attached to it, and then she's swimming closer to the bank for a better look. The closer she gets, the clearer it is that she looks a little different in ways that light and water can't account for with blue-black eyes and skin like mother of pearl and a tail the same, propelling her on and still moving, restlessly, when she comes up alongside.

(There's what looks sort of like a distorted bitemark on the back of aforementioned tail, where it'd be high on her thigh if she had thighs right now, but it's hard to get a proper look and it's probably healing, anyway.)

"What are you doing out at this hour?" And what are you, his mother? Ilde is not actually in a position to criticize anyone else's judgement, bossy naiad tone aside.

[gramarye]

"What are you doing out at this hour?" he counters, which. Is probably dumb, he definitely can tell that something is off here. Long pause. He wonders if this is another hallucination, but that's never happened before, imagining that someone looks different than they do (i.e. has a tail) Then again, a lot of weird shit that happens to him is completely new from the other weird shit -- then again again, he knows how weird this city is in general, he saw a gentleman with horns the other day.

He wonders if it would be rude to ask.

"You're all right?" he asks, instead, like it's not a big deal although the expression on his face is somewhere slightly left of bewildered. "I was worried, since -- um, that thing that happened." You know, when all the people eaters went nuts and ate a bunch of people!

[rhinemaid]

Ilde is briefly stymied by his question, dumb as it may be, if only because there's really no reason she should be able to ask it and he can't; she just thinks he looks soft and breakable and that sort of person should, she's of the vague opinion, probably not go ambling around the city on his own. He's got a splint, look at him, he needs to be supervised.

The next question gives her somewhere to go, though, so she discards the entire first half of their conversation so far in lieu of: "I was stuck, for a while. But that was all." Besides the part where she herded vampires with the illusion of fire in the company of a fairy-vampire cross she befriended while going into the fog like that's a good idea...besides that part. "I got home eventually."

A few beats later, after it had seemed like she was finished, she says, "Thank you." For asking.

[gramarye]

"Oh, well -- that's good, then -- obviously, I mean I'm glad to hear it. That, um, doesn't happen often here, does it?" Please say it doesn't. Although either way he's going to be more prepared in case it ever does, but at least knowing that isn't a monthly thing would be nice. He has already heard some disturbing rumours about the fog.

And the river, for that matter.

Mildly scandalized by Ilde's... Ildeness, to his credit, Wolfgang manages to limit this to just blushing. He knows he is because his face is hot, but it's dark and he hopes she can't see it. He's doing his very best to soldier on in spite of how fucking weird the city is, though, so he's just going to play like this is normal. Yeah, that'll show Baedal! He indicates the bank with a nod of his head and a, "May I?" as in may-I-sit-down-and-let's-chat. This isn't just polite friendliness, he really would like to make at least one friend.

[rhinemaid]

Waving him down to sit where he indicates - she's more inclined to like Wolfgang than not, and more than that he's something curious at which she would like to continue poking - Ilde swims closer still to rest against a convenient rock like a Danish statue. By the time she settles, it looks as though she's wrapped some sort of thin fabric loosely around her torso, in an illusory concession to other people's sensibility.

Some people apparently find naiad breasts distracting and when she doesn't intend to be distracting, it seems polite to pretend she cares.

"There's trouble every now and again," she says, thoughtfully. "Invasions. Plague. Sabotage. I think it's connected." To nothing good- her tone, however superficially mild, suggests that perhaps she has a lot of strong feelings on the subject. "But not all the time."

[gramarye]

"Connected to...?" Wolfgang doesn't mean to be nosy, but, well, it's just how he is. Caring about things like this. "I'd heard some rumours, but none of it's making much sense from where I'm at."

He sits with his legs folded up, making him appear to be less of a giant, and evidently doesn't care about getting dirt or sand or grass-stains on his clothes. "That's a relief, anyway," he says with obvious irony. "I'd be put out if some -- some other dimension kidnapped a bunch of people just to force them to lead boring, ordinary lives somewhere else."

[rhinemaid]

"Connected to each other." At least Ilde doesn't seem bothered by his curiosity- she wonders more at people who don't seem to care, but usually not for long. She's never liked to waste her time. "Not boring and ordinary, but at least consistent."

...consistently fucked up, but that's not really a departure from the rest of her life, at this point.

[gramarye]

"Consistent would be a nice change." 'Consistently weird' is the closest his life's ever been, so far, with all that weirdness having no discernible pattern -- so having one, even if it involves a bunch of -- he can barely even think the word vampire, what the fuck -- people-eating things going crazy and trying to kill everybody... at least there's probably a reason for it. How do you begin to battle chaos?

He shrugs, smiles; oh well. This is all plainly over his head, and he still doesn't understand why half the people the city apparently dragged in, like him, are just ordinary people, rather than vampires or... mermaids, is that what she is? "I like your tail," he offers. It's weird but pretty. And maybe if she acknowledges that it's real he won't have to freak out later, wondering if he imagined it. (No, he's pretty sure this is real.) (Pretty sure.) (He might be dreaming.)

[rhinemaid]

Helpfully, she looks terribly pleased when he compliments aforementioned tail - like a light coming out from behind a cloud, and then returning as quickly. "If I get another tattoo, though, it won't be anywhere on my legs," she says, critically, flexing and then brushing her thumb over the oddly smudged black stripe high where her thigh would be. "It distorts when I change. That's meant to be a ribbon."

The aesthetic concerns of the modern naiad, a series.

(She can taste it, when she sees him in person- he's not any more normal than she is, but she has an odd sense of courtesy and she can certainly grasp why someone might keep something like that to themselves. She'll be even more curious when she realizes he genuinely doesn't know.)

[gramarye]

"Oh, well -- that must be annoying." Well, okay. So she's a real mermaid. Also vampires exist, among other things. He thought he saw some kind of winged... person, not to mention the horned man and someone with purplish skin. Okay. So maybe he'll just assume everything he sees now is real. It might make him less jumpy. "Are you considering another one?"

Talking about tattoos feels blessedly normal.

[rhinemaid]

"A friend of mine is a tattooist, here, so I thought..." A little shrug. She'd like more ink and she'd like to push business in Asbjoern's direction- it's a theoretical win-win situation, if only she can think of something else she wants. If her skin would even take it, now...probably. Maybe. She'll find out. "My godmother bought me the first one."

Family is normal, too, right? Normalcy is going on here. With the mage who doesn't know what he is and the faerie who doesn't know where she came from.

[gramarye]

"What's your first one? If you don't mind me asking --" Look, he needs some normalcy. So does everyone here, frankly. Although thinking about family makes him pretty sad -- it's probably better for everyone if he stays here, rather than, say, get caught by the police, deported back to Israel and tried. He still misses his family, considers making a comment along those lines, decides it's best to not bring it up. It'll just depress him.

[rhinemaid]

It's a strange subject for Ilde, but one she forces a distance from; she was taken from them by force, and in the wreckage of the world it's very likely that she'd never have seen them again, Baedal or no. She hopes her father got her letter, with Ceith's boon, but she doesn't let herself count on it.

(It took her a long time to decide to send it. She'd wondered if it mightn't be better if he just-- but he doesn't get to give up on her, she's not going to stand for that, not after everything.)

"It's a ribbon," she says, sliding her fingertips along the smudge where it should be. "A plain black ribbon, tied in a knot that hangs down the side of my thigh. Just a tic-"

The gauzy wrap around her body lengthens in the same moment that her tail becomes thighs, knees, calves, feet; she's a considerate girl. Sometimes.