savetheearth | [Open] One day you think we'll wake up

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[Open] One day you think we'll wake up

Who: Julien and OPEN
What: Morose giant bird lets himself be approached.
Where: Various non-crowded places in Locke, Vegas, and Neuschwainstein; in the air, in parks, in large yards. Your character may have gotten in contact with him and arranged to meet, or just encountered him.
When: Vague points in the last few days of January.

Two weeks in the mountains and Julien was coordinated and more or less used to how his body worked now. He still felt fragile and hated the way he looked, the way people looked at him, the new list of limitations. Part of him wanted to go back to the alm and the isolation that came with it. It had been grueling up there and, in its way, peaceful. It had also been hard to bear. He couldn't stay there, he'd known it even before he'd been found. He thrived on people.

...but he couldn't bear to jump back into turmoil and chatter, either. So, compromise. He hovered at the edges of the world he had known and talked to people sometimes, and wondered if he'd ever feel like himself again.

At least the flying was good.

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When Julien comes down there is a large soup mug with tea waiting for him, as well as a pretty little tea set (Arnold's mother was Old Money English) neatly set up.

"Milk and sugar?" He offers when he sees Julien.

"Not long! Liam called me - he was sick, poor boy. Scared his mum and I - we thought it best if I came down. Lisa - my wife, that is - she was horrified to learn Liam hadn't been eating right. Told me I should stay. So I'll be in town for a while, at least!" He grins at Julien.

"I am rather useless in the kitchen, but if you fancy a bite to eat, I have, at least, worked out the microwave and toaster."

The most comfortable way to walk, especially indoors, is keeping his body held at an angle, approaching horizontal. Especially while people are around Julien instead prefers to rear up to be basically vertical like a human, which emphasizes his bulk and makes him very tall. He walks carefully to keep his body steady. If he sways his head may bob to compensate and he hates that. Naturally it'd be easier to keep steady if he walked at an angle.

"Please. Easy on the sugar... hang on a bit." Julien wings the patio door open and closes it behind him. When outside he ruffles up all his feathers, stamps his feet, shakes his head and tail, and then beats his wings hard enough to lift off slightly. Loose snow goes flying. Nearby tree branches shake. Everything is spattered with water. He comes back in ruffly and somewhat drier.

Staying in town to keep an eye on Liam. He bets Liam's thrilled. "Anyone who can help him with that's cool. I see you're numbered yourself? Are you fitting in?"

Julien comes back to an Arnold with stars in his eyes.

"Oh, your plummage is so beautiful. And the way the snow went flying. The rainbows in the spray! Ah, I think I know what my next set will be. Something about feathers and snow, I think - white and colours! Thank you! I never did thank you for earlier either. I should arrange for a comission for you, I think, if you keep inspiring me like this! "

Oh, dear. Julien supposes it is good and sunny. "Well, I was in a shoot involving prisms last fall, wore white and everything. Last I checked my agent said no one was doing anything with it. That was as the Numbered were really going out of favor, you know."

He steps and stamps on the towel to get melting snow off. The scales on his feet are translucent and show as a bright red-pink. "I'm not sure what you mean by helping you, though! Sounds like you followed my short-lived career?"

"Yes!" Arnold claps his hands in delight. "I thought that was you! You helped me finish my last set - it needed something but I didn't know what until I saw you. Gave me an image so strong I knew I had to paint it. I should do an exhibition here. Maybe I can hire a hall or something - give you a private showing. But if I can do something with the ideas you just gave me I'll make sure to credit you. It's only fair, after all."

"You're welcome! I guess." This is weird. Could be worse. Is still weird. "You really don't need to do all that. I don't want to uh... get too much attention. It's inevitable, sure, but... I don't know, an exhibition about the Numbered in general might go down better."

He comes to investigate the tea set. Oh dear, it's like the real version of one of the tea parties he had with his niece.

Story of Arnold's life, right there.

"Ah... yes, I suppose it might be a bit awkward. Well! I still feel a little guilty, using you as inspiration."

He taps his lip thoughtfully. "If you like, I could arrange for you to get a cut of the profits? That way, no one needs to know it was you specifically." He shrugs a little. "And it isn't as if I painted you specifically, if that's what you were worried about! But after I saw your work I just had an image that was absolutely perfect for my last seascape set. I had to paint it, it was...almost like a memory."

He nudges the milk and sugar bowl over to Julien's side of the table.

"I wasn't sure if you wanted milk too." He adds apologetically, but I did put a teaspoon of sugar in, as you asked."

Some of Julien's feathers fluffed a bit further, then returned to being held where they had been before, not too close to his body. Being suddenly offered money for nothing makes him uncomfortable, for all that Arnold doesn't seem to have ulterior motives. "Well, uh - that's generous! Thanks. I don't suppose you saw this in Locke? I'm guessing you're Numbered."

Unless the handful of Numbered taking on elf-traits has inspired a plastic surgery craze among the rich. He has to admit that's a funny thought.

"Milk's cool." He brings a furled wing around and daintily uses a couple of his prehensile feathers to lift the container and pour in a measure, and to stir it with a spoon. Those feathers are... well, they're weird. At times they seem to work like fingers or spider's legs, jointed in many places, at times more like tentacles or an elephant's trunk, fluid.

"Hm" Arnold tips his head and considers. "Where was I...? I'm not sure, you know? It was an article in the paper, I remember that. I'm afraid I don't recall where I was when I saw it though. Is it important?"

A sheepish grin and his hand goes up to brush against his ears. "Ah, this? Yes, Liam says so. They appeared when I saw his."

He watches Julien's feathers work curiously but without any sign of discomfort. "Oh, well, I feel it's only polite. If I am going to be drawing inspiration form nature, that's one thing, but an actual person is a rather different proposition! It would feel wrong if I didn't do something to thank you."

"It sounds like it might have been a pulse. You can only have those in one of the boundary areas, they're around Locke, Vegas, and three places overseas. Was it... well, sudden and consuming? Can you still picture it clearly?"

So that was three people in this family like that. Come to think about it, he'd caused Teagan's first pulse too, hadn't he?

He dips his head. "That's really good of you actually. I just don't feel right about accepting money for something I haven't consciously done! Maybe this new stuff you're talking about." Carefully Julien picks up the soup mug and grips it with the two remaining fingers in his wing, and dips his beak into it, testing that it's cool enough. It is. He uses his beak like a broad straw, throat pumping as tea is drawn up into his mouth and swallowed.

For a moment the cheerful smile drops and Arnold looks... haunted, is the best description.

"Oh yes. Very clearly. A lady. Beautiful and so very frightened. Dark, dark eyes, and a star in her hands, the light reflected in her eyes. 'Give it to me' I say. 'Never' she answers and steps backwards... and falls. And then she flies, and she is not a lady at all but a great white bird, with a star on her breast."

He shivers and shrugs. "It... was almost painful. Do you think it was a... a pulse?"

He considers and nods. "I can do that, if it makes you feel better? Do you know anything about contracts or have a lawyer? Once I actually get started we can draw up something formal.

Ah. It's always kind of sad when someone who seems so generally happy has something bad in their pulses, or actual life. ...Julien's aware he's in that category too.

Also, fantasy land is weird. He's not going to let on that he thinks that, at least not here, or that the idea that there could be someone else like him fills him with mixed emotions.

"Yeah... that sounds exactly like one. I'm sorry I kicked off something like that." He can't smile, and his expression is frozen. Julien ruffles the feathers on his head and neck in a friendly way and tries patting Arnold's arm (...and side, and leg) with one wing, slowly enough to not kick up a breeze.

More tea. "I don't have a lawyer, no, and pretty limited contract experience. I'd want to talk to some friends."

Edited 2015-02-06 05:05 (UTC)

Arnold musters up a grin and awkwardly pets the wing in return, just a quick brush of his hand.

"No, it's fine. And!" He brightens up (and maybe Julien can recognise a very similar coping mechanism) "It was the last picture I needed to complete the set! So it worked out in the end. It's probably my most popular piece - everyone is talking about it."

He smiles in thanks and cups his hand around the teacup. "Good idea - make sure whoever you get is trustworthy. Like - I would hope I am honest! But contracts are tricky things - you want to make sure they're airtight on both sides."

The feathers are simultaneously soft and sleeky-smooth and hard, layering over each other to deflect contact. They're also still damp.

Yeah, Julien's done that sort of thing too, and he lets himself be distracted along. "As long as something good comes of it! You know, I haven't actually seen this piece myself. Personally, I write poetry, by the way."

"Mhmm. It's good to know what everything means instead of just trusting, just in general. Though it's a flattering offer!" He tries to lick his beak clean, though his tongue isn't flexible enough for the whole job.

"Poetry!" Arnold smiles more genuinely at that. "Ooh, you will have to give me a recital one day. And I can easily arrange for you to come and see the gallery in New York, or I could arrange a showing here, if you like? I am quite proud of it - as sorrowful as the.. . pulse was, I think it is easily my best piece. And yes, most definitely. If we do this, make sure you are happy with it first."

He pushes the tissue box over. "Do you need a hand there?"

"Heh. Well, if you're lucky! I'm looking into publishing under a pen name. I don't want things I write getting attention just because I look like this." When Julien stamps a foot the vibration can be felt through the floor. "But I don't think I want to be out of the bounds much these days, not where people can see me."

He looks frankly horrible outside the boundaries. When he'd been more like a harpy it hadn't been bad. Human-shaped with longer downy arms, and big grasping feet, and claws. Now that his body and neck and face have changed, enough of that lingers to dismay him.

"Thanks, but water works better. It's at least not as hard as an actual bath."

Arnold looks confused for a moment before realising and nodding apologetically. "Ah, yes, of course - I bet it gets a bit uncomfortable out there where folks aren't used to it. Well, I can easily arrange an exhibition here! Or... maybe in Las Vegas? I know Liam said that area with the Mountain counts as well? That way you can stay... how big are the "bounds" anyway?"

He looks thoughtful at that and holds up a finger. "Just a mo" And he'll push back from the table and grab a large salad bowl and fill it with water. "that work?"

"It does! Thorir's out over there too." He wonders how Arnold gets along with Thorir - well, they've got kids marrying, presumably they make an effort. "I'm not actually clear on the exact size, I know it just barely covers the whole lake, though. Some spots have bigger boundaries than others."

He would've gone to the sink but hey, this works too. Julien dips his beak into it, far enough to half cover his operculum, and swishes side to side, leaving the water cloudy. "Yeah, thanks."

"Is he? He never mentioned it, but perhaps we could ask if our girls want a Vegas wedding in that case" Arnold seems positively amused by the idea.

"No worries!" he waves it off. "Say, if Liam left you a spare set of keys I'm guessing you're pretty good friends yeah? How...is he doing? Really? I trust him you know? But I know he won't tell me everything. You don't have to spill secrets or anything! Just.. is he coping ok?"

"Hah. Maybe!" It's depressing to think of meeting Birgir again after all these years when he looks like this. Better not to think about it.

Liam had not left him keys, but it would be exceedingly awkward to admit that now. He tilts his head to one side. "Well, he does have friends who'll look out for him. Some..." Pausing, he chooses his words. No father likes to hear his son is seen as an immature ditz, right? Even Julien sees him like that to an extent, he just doesn't mind. "There's a lot of people who'll underestimate him but still have his back. That makes a difference."

It's hard now for Julien to have faith that people will have his back, now more than ever, still he can believe differently for others. "I know he's had pulses that give him nightmares. It's pretty common in general."

"Well, it is not my wedding in any case." Arnold says reluctantly. "But it will give me something to bring up in my speech, if they do!"

He listens quietly and nods slowly. "That... would not surprise me. Liam is a good boy but... he tries too hard, I think sometimes. He's still looking for himself, I think. But he's a good boy. I told him not to be afraid to do what he thinks is right. Well. I am sure he will get there." He looks pensive. "Nightmares huh? Perhaps he will feel comfortable enough to speak to me one day. In the meantime... thanks. For looking after him."

"I'm smiling," Julien says, since he can't smile. "Liam doesn't like feeling looked after. He wants to be able to take care of himself, and he wants people to see him as able. I can get that. I want to help him anyway. He's a good kid."

Arnold beams back bright enough for two. "Well, I think everyone's like that yeah? Wanting to be able to look after themselves. But I'm glad he's got folk to keep an eye on him. Thanks for saying so."

"No problem." He tries the arm-pat again. "It's nice to be taken care of sometimes, too! I like it here and there. But I can see why he'd start to chafe."

"Oh, I am sure he will be royally sick of me soon." Arnold agrees cheerfully. "But his mother was not pleased to be told of his eating habits, and so he will just have to deal with my presence, until she is confident he is not about to keep over."

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