(no subject)

[espigeonage]

Who: Julien and OPEN
Where: Pretty much anywhere works, please specify!
When: Idk, any time this week?
What: It passes for normal living.

Julien had a lot to do these days.

Early in the mornings he'd exercise in one of the parks, even during the worst of the cold snap. He wasn't the fastest or strongest around, but his endurance was startling. Sometimes he came back for more in the middle of the afternoon.

Some days he had shifts at the LSR clinic, often at the front desk, out shoveling snow whenever it was there. When he didn't have work he'd meander the city and frequent various places, sometimes in company and sometimes alone. Sometimes he'd find a place to read, sometimes he'd go back to the apartment for that. Now and then he'd ride his scraped-up secondhand motorcycle, anonymous in a helmet, just to be riding it.

Here and there throughout the day he'd stop in a park or somewhere else out of the way, including the odd rooftop, and feed pigeons, which were fearless of him.

By the time it was starting to get dark he'd usually head back to the apartment he shared with Blaine, since he was unable to see in low light. Sometimes instead he'd go to a party and be taken back in someone's car, making his way from there with the help of streetlights.

He was a short young man with a compact build, rarely seen in a shirt without a collar, with fluffy dyed-blue hair and slightly odd-looking blue eyes. Someone who'd known him for a while might notice stress showing around his eyes and the corners of his mouth, but he smiled enough, especially when watched, that usually it was hard to tell.

Comments

Late afternoon; the park

[ladyofluminosity]

[Cutting through the park on her way home from school, she noticed a familar blue-haired man jogging. Starting to raise her arm to wave, she winced and stopped, instead raising her other to wave.

She at least hoped it was him. She would look pretty awkward if it wasn't, waving like an idiot. But who else had blue hair like that?]

[espigeonage]

[Awkward, as far as Julien's concerned, happens to other people. He sees her, and that wince, waves back, and makes his way over. He's got a coat and a cardigan open to reveal a turtleneck shirt. He does not sweat, and his steaming breaths are much deeper than human breaths.]

Hey! Lucy!

[ladyofluminosity]

Hi there. Out jogging?

[espigeonage]

That's right! Taking it easy? [He reaches her and slows to walk apace, quiets his voice.] How's your arm?

[ladyofluminosity]

I'm trying to, at least.

It's all right. It still hurts, but there wasn't much damage thankfully enough.

Midday; LSR

[worldmother]

[The bell on the door to the clinic rang, in walking a petite redhead, looking nearly twice her size with all the bundling up she did, a bag with what appeared to be a change of clothes and shoes tucked under her arm. Shivering a little as she came inside, beating the snow from her boots on the door frame, she didn't look up right away to see who was at the reception desk. Classes had been cancelled for the day, but emergencies wouldn't wait; she was thankful for her four-wheel drive.]

[espigeonage]

[Julien caught movement in his clear peripheral vision and put the book down before she came in, smiling brightly.]

Hello, Miss Elly! They closed down the uni, right? That hardly ever happens! You get here all right?

[worldmother]

[Oh, it was Julien. She gives him a bit of a smile.]

They did. I think they were expecting it to be worse than it is, though.

Relatively. My van's a beast. You?

[espigeonage]

I've heard it's pretty terrible in the Midwest. I've got friends out there complaining about cold and snow... aaah, winter. [he sounds content.]

I'm good, thanks! I just have a motorcycle, but I've got the route picked out by now and I can usually get a ride. Haven't crashed yet!

[worldmother]

And my mom's side of the family has been giving people grief about complaining about it. "If you don't like the cold, then why the hell are you out here--" I'm sure you know the drill.

[She laughs a bit at that. Crazy Wisconsinites.

She blinks a few times.]

Isn't that a bit dangerous?

Midday; the park

[charcoalfeather]

[Having not really been getting out much herself, Rakka had decided that should probably change, even if she didn't like it. So, here she was, walking through the park of all places. It had been the first thing to come to mind, though it seemed sort of ridiculous.

The sight of pigeons perked her up a little though, not that she knew why. She made her way over to them slowly, unaware of who was feeding them until she was close.]

Oh! Uh, hello again.

[espigeonage]

[A bird stands on his fingertips, eating out of his palm.]

Hey, Rakka! It must be fate or something, that we meet so often. [he's just being cheeky. Some of the birds look at her out of one or both eyes, their gazes more knowing than those of pigeons really should be.] You don't want them to land on you, right?

[charcoalfeather]

[A pigeon flutters near her, bobbing its head and seemingly inspecting her. Rakka flinched a little, but remained where she was.]

Y-yeah! At least it's n-nice to see you around here. I see you're feeding the birds.

[espigeonage]

They won't hurt you. But, uh - [He speaks a request in Elvish. It's not an unpleasant-sounding language at all. For a moment they all stop eating, and little heads tilt before getting back to the grain.] - I'm not sure if they understand when I talk like that, but it usually seems to calm them down.

[He strokes the back of the one he's holding.] It's tough to find food in winter. That's probably why they're so greedy.

[charcoalfeather]

They're... probably grateful.

....W-what was that you just said? The...[She tried to repeat what he said in Elvish, to little effect since she's terrible at it.]

[Closed]

[espigeonage]

[Independent of previous threads]

It had happened again. Aaron had gone off-network, again.

Last time had been bad enough; after a week of trying to convince himself Julien had gone and told Aaron some of it. This time it just took a few hours, and Aaron remembered what he'd been told last time - and Julien had tried to tell him the rest. The rest, which started and you've forgotten but you were on this network too, and you are important to me.

Not long after going into the room that served as an office Julien left the room at something approaching a run, tear-streaked and hugging himself. Aaron appeared behind him in the doorway, starting to follow - and then pulled back, obviously conflicted, and let him go.

Julien got a little farther before he stopped with his face contorted, eyes pleading and wide-pupiled and sightless, and buried his face in his hands and wept. For a moment he was beyond the ability to care who saw him - he'd gotten out of Aaron's sight, and that was it. He could not sob, so as he folded in on himself, shoulders hunched, he did not shake, and he was silent.

[healspec]

Ravindra saw Julien run past, and it was not hard to tell even as a blur caught in the corner of his vision that he was not okay. He cautiously moved to the intersection, looking down one side of the hallway, seeing Dr. Strider, and then down the other, now empty.

Ah. Dr. Strider without his memories. That was probably the reason. It was going to be stressful to tiptoe around, but apparently for Julien it was much more than just that.

Ravi flashed an apologetic glance toward Aaron, though he had nothing to apologize for, and followed Julien's path down the hallway to find him. Approaching from behind, he missed the fact that Julien was crying--there was nothing to tip him off from that angle.

"Julien?" he inquired, soft, concerned.

[espigeonage]

When he had told Ravi and Elly, and when he'd insisted on going to Aaron alone, Julien had certainly not been happy, but it had happened before and someone had to talk to him about what he'd forgotten. If anyone who'd gone off-network could and should still be filled in, it was Aaron Strider. So Julien had been composed.

He wasn't now.

The part of him that always stood a little apart said this was stupid. Last time this had happened, he'd been hit with memories of a brother's sudden scorn. The two experiences and their attendant loads of misery had mashed together in the moment, and he'd cried in front of Emmanuel. But he'd kept it together in front of Aaron. This time it hadn't come with a pulse, and he'd been through this before, he shouldn't be just breaking down!

That didn't help. Julien tucked his chin to his chest, and knotted one hand in his downy hair, and felt sick. His sinuses ached. Someone was talking to him and he couldn't care. He couldn't do this. He knew he couldn't do this.

[worldmother]

The bell on the front door once again jingling, she heard it before she actually saw it--the sound of someone dashing through the hall. Furrowing her brow slightly, she set her bag down at the entrance, walking in that direction. She couldn't explain why, but something told her that there was something wrong.

Seeing the crumpled Julien in the hallway, folded in upon himself, reaffirmed that feeling, and Elly dashed over, fearing the worst.

No words were necessary in this moment. They would have been too much for him to handle. She had a suspicion of what this was about.

Reaching him, she crouched down next to him and, without warning, pulled him in close. She may not have known the staff nearly as long as some of the others, but they were quickly becoming family to her, and in a time like this, he needed that simple comfort; she wanted to help, more than anything.

"It's okay," She whispered calmly, "Just let it out. You're in good hands."

[healspec]

Being ignored left Ravi at a loss. He wasn't sure whether the right answer was to keep pushing or to retreat and leave him be. But while he stood there trying to decide, Elly rushed in and took over.

It was a relief, frankly. That took the pressure off of him to know how to handle it, and it was easier to tell her what was wrong than to attempt to console Julien himself. He moved beside her, hovering, still not quite sure what to do but knowing that it would be wrong to just leave.

"He just now spoke with Doctor Strider," he said, a low murmur that Elly could hear but Julien, he hoped, would ignore and fail to process.

the park; afternoon

[thebalrogslayer]

Not for the first time, Gabriel's eyes are drawn by the splash of blue, this time against a white world. It took him a moment to put a name to the face, but finding Julien amongst the pigeons as before helped, and he's always been good with names. Just as well, because being involved in the uni and his lines of work means that he sees more blue hair than most.

Once he's come up with a name, he doesn't hesitate to step over, a smile across his face. Normally he's almost silent in approach, but with snow underfoot the crunch of each step announces him as he crosses the park. "How're they faring with the snow?"

[espigeonage]

"Oh, hey, Gabe," he said with a smile, looking him over. He needed to think of a new nickname. It seemed the man didn't care for 'Gabe' and was too polite to protest, but the full version just sounded formal.

Julien had fantastic eyesight; scars and things under the skin were much clearer to him than when he'd had human eyes. He thought Gabriel looked a little different, compared to when they met, but it was a small difference, like he'd just had a better night's sleep.

"They're good in the cold, looks like - see how they're all fat and round? It's all fluff." Oddly graceful, he bent and picked one up with both hands. It sleeked down and protested, urr urr urr as Julien straightened and transferred it to the crook of his arm, settling and starting to puff up again when he murmured "Goheno, av'osto" - sorry, don't be afraid.

[Pigeons can get very round.]

[thebalrogslayer]

Different strokes for different folks. He changed to Gabriel from Jonathan when he was younger than Julien because he found that too boring (and John even worse). He feels like he's had a good sleep, feels better than he has done in years, but he still hasn't worked out what's going on. Give it another couple of weeks.

He's seen fat pigeons before - he lived and worked in London for a long time, they were a common sight, but he still thinks that seeing birds puffed up is one of the small pleasures in life. Although he'd say there were cuter birds than pigeons, he has enough tact not to say it aloud.

What he is interested in is what Julien murmurs to the pigeon as he picks it up, and he steps closer, frowning softly. "What did you say to it?"

[espigeonage]

There is a moment here where the pupils of Julien's overbright eyes noticeably expand and then contract to small points, quickly enough that his eyes seem to flash pearl-tinged blue. It reflects his burst of wariness followed by rapid thinking.

"Ah, well, it's an endearment I picked up in the DD," he says, which is fairly true, treading carefully. "One of my friends taught me. He called it-" -it had come up once, there were different dialects, this was- "Sindarin, I think."

Altogether Julien doesn't make much effort not to speak Elvish where strangers will hear. To most people, languages they don't know are kind of a blur and it's difficult to recall a foreign phrase. Elvish flows naturally enough and sounds vaguely like a number of normal tongues, so it might draw a moment of attention but from most, not more than that.

Aaaand echo request approved, Gabriel now understands Sindarin but can't understand it!

[thebalrogslayer]

Slowly, Gabriel shakes his head. "Not an endearment. You told him not to be afraid?" He's still trying to get his head around this. How does he know that? Aside from a little bit of schoolboy french and some basic greetings that he picked up in Europe when he was working there he's never learnt another language, but he's certain that he understood Julien, that that's what it was.

Besides. Sindarin? "Where's it from? I've never heard of it." Asian, perhaps? The lilt of it sounded Finnish - or maybe Irish, though. European. Not that he's an expert.