[Closed] Ai na vedui Dúnadan!

[thebalrogslayer]

Who: Aaron and Gabriel
What: Congratulation Aaron on enduring Liam.  Someone's got to do it.
Where: The clinic
When: End of January

Gabriel lets himself into the lobby and looks around.  While he's heard a lot about the clinic - first through his charity, and then through the network - he's never actually had the need to come down here before.  Not inside, anyway: he knows the area well enough, and he bears himself with a confidence that makes him less of a target for thieves.  Just as well, since after growing an extra couple of inches he had to get himself new clothes and gone are his old ratty jeans with a new branded pair.  Give him a couple of months and he'll get them beaten up well enough, but for now he's just glad enough he could pull in a few favours to get part of his new wardrobe for free, given that he 'voluntarily' relinquished his job lecturing at the university only a few weeks earlier.

Well, it might not be the smartest of places, he decides as he takes a step further in, but you can't judge a book by it's cover.  He's only heard good things about this place.  Well, aside from what he heard about the weed, but he keeps his thoughts about that to himself, as he always has done.  Crossing over to the receptionist, he smiles brightly at her.  "Afternoon.  I'm looking for one of your doctors.  Aaron - Aaron Strider.  Is he in? If he's not, or if he's busy, I can leave a message."  Although, he's kind of hoping he isn't.  He's heard a lot about Aaron from Julien and it'll be interesting to finally put a face to the name.

Comments

[elfstoned]

"He isn't," says Aaron, coming out from a door just behind the receptionist -- who jumps, just a little. He walks quieter than he used to. "What seems to be the trouble?"

It's only then that he gets a good look at the visitor's face.

[thebalrogslayer]

Well, there are much worse faces to be exposed to, or at least so Gabriel has been led to believe. He doesn't jump: his hearing is too good for that, ever since he gained those pointed ears that they've taken as a way to write people off as elves. But his smile to the receptionist turns reassuring, before he looks up to Aaron.

"No trouble! I just heard that you took care of one of my friends lately - Liam Benedict - and I wanted to thank you for it. You went with Thorir to find Julien as well, didn't you?" He adds, smile turning just a little soft. They'd gone out just in time. Any later, and Gabriel would have gone after him himself. "I'm Gabriel West." He adds, offering his hand to shake.

[elfstoned]

The deep, empty heartbeat feeling is familiar by now. Aaron doesn't understand why he's gotten so many over the past month -- they didn't used to come nearly this fast -- but Gabriel will probably catch the brief unfocusing of Aaron's eyes, the falter in the handshake. When his focus comes back, there is wonder in his face

"Agoren," he says, as if he hardly dares to believe it. "Mae govannen, mellon iaur."

(The receptionist looks a little confused, but honestly just turns back to the data she's putting into a laptop. Her boss is weird, and she usually just doesn't ask.)

[thebalrogslayer]

Call it a welcome back present. They've got a years worth of echoes to unleash.

Recognising the echo for what it is, Gabriel waits for Aaron to return to attention, but he does retrieve his hand. So Aaron's back on the network, then? Mind you - he should have guessed. How else would he and Thorir have gotten to Germany so easily?

"Gi suilon. I understand elvish but can't speak it." ...No point in mentioning Quenyan when he's just triggered an echo. He picked 'elvish' on purpose too, in case even the idea that there may be more than one language would cause one. "So you remembered me?" That'll be a first.

[elfstoned]

The familiar tone Gabriel takes feels right, thanks to that pulse -- it puts Aaron at ease almost immediately, a feat few have been able to accomplish. It's strange, though, to think of Glorfindel being unable to speak Elvish.

"I did," Aaron says. "You came to help me at a time when I badly needed it." He actually had to pause for a second before he said that -- what had wanted to come out was, you came to my aid in a time of gravest need. But Aaron will be damned if he'll talk like he's in Fantasyland in front of his receptionist.

[thebalrogslayer]

Gabriel has come to be content with the notion that the Sindarin will come to him in time, and in the meanwhile at least he can understand what the others say to him. It would be nice to have someone to speak Quenyan with, but he's ready to be patient for that as well.

Still, it's now Gabriel's turn to falter, not with an echo, but as he takes in that revelation. So he really does remember him. He wants to know more, but not in this place. "Can we go somewhere to talk? Would you like coffee?" He offers as a suggestion. Not necessarily less private, but less likely to have as much attention on them if there are more conversations happening around them.

[elfstoned]

Aaron laughs. "Is your timing always perfect, or have you just been lucky twice? I was just walking out the door to lunch."

Which is to say, yes, he absolutely will take you up on the invitation.

[thebalrogslayer]

"Apparently I'm just lucky." Gabriel laughs. "Except I had hoped that this would be around lunch time for you." After all, he couldn't expect to take up the time that Aaron had with patients to thank him. He'd made somewhat of an educated guess and hoped that nothing had over run too much.

"Where were you planning on going?" He asks, turning back towards the door.

[elfstoned]

"There's a sandwich place down the street," he says, heading for the door as well. He'll reach it first and hold it open behind him. "It's kind of hole-in-the-wall, but it's good. Will that be all right?"

[thebalrogslayer]

Slipping through the door, back out into the cold, Gabriel nods once in thanks. "If you say it's good I trust you." Aaron's been working here long enough to know where the best place to eat is, and Gabriel's wallet will thank him to stay within a reasonable budget, and that means not eating out too much.

Once the door's closed behind them, Gabriel has to wait for Aaron to lead the way since he doesn't know where they're going. "I don't know if anyone's told you, but Julien's shared the athelas round. It was you who echoed it back in the first place, wasn't it? I think we have a few colonies growing now. I know it's taken over my kitchen sill rather well."

[elfstoned]

This first meeting really was a perfect storm to put Aaron at ease. He knows Gabriel West's name, respects it, and the memory of Glorfindel has helped that first impression. Aaron breaks a smile and shakes his head.

"I knew," he says, "and I'm not surprised. It is generally considered a weed by those who don't know how to use it." It's basically a yes. "Sometimes I worry that it'll turn out to be an invasive species, but then I think about the early days of the network, when I was afraid I would run out, or that it would die from over-cutting, and I can't say I regret introducing it."

[thebalrogslayer]

"There are worse invasive species I can think of. Not that I'm advocating anything, but at least it has some uses. I was attempting to put it through tests at the university, but with one thing and another I didn't have time to do all that I'd like. Though what it really needs is a long term study." He glances at Aaron and then laughs. "You'll have to excuse me, I'm somewhat of a geek when it comes to the medicinal properties of plants. I did my phd on it." Not that he looks old enough to have a phd under his belt, not any more.

"If you don't mind me asking, how long have you had your echoes back?" He adds, curiously glancing at Aaron.

[elfstoned]

"No, no," Aaron says as they make their way down the street, "I'd be very interested in hearing what you found out. I've been breaking the rules with it, honestly," he admits, sheepish but unrepentant, "and using it on patients without testing. I've been relying on what Aragorn knew, which is far from scientific.

"But speaking of my echoes," he goes on, "they came back briefly in the first week of January, but disappeared again until the morning of the seventeenth."

[thebalrogslayer]

Ah, and now it is Gabriel's turn to feel the familiar hollow feeling of a pulse that causes his steps to falter. It's just as well he has a good sense of balance, despite his new height, or he might have stumbled, but as it is after a moment he strides to catch back up. He does wait a moment longer before he speaks, still getting his head around the memories that have suddenly been implanted.

"So you were off network for just over a year?" How odd. "You'll have to excuse me for asking, but are you glad to be back or not?" He's a little hesitant to ask, but curiosity will out. He's often wondered what would happen if he returned to London and left his echoes behind with the boundaries, but he can't bring himself to leave his friends to deal with everything alone. Especially now after Thorir's gold-sickness. He can't risk that it'll come on again and he won't know what's going on. "As for athelas, though, I'm afraid I found very little out. I feel I should have made better use of the university facilities than I did. Aragorn's knowledge is probably useful, though. He'll have much more experience than any of us, and I assume he wasn't the first to use it."

[elfstoned]

If Gabriel had stumbled, Aaron would have put a hand out to check him -- but as it is, the falter in Gabriel's steps only makes him pause and turn to look quizzically at his companion, an unspoken are you all right?

But satisfied that Gabriel is, Aaron falls back into step, nodding in response to Gabriel's first question. The second, though, he'll answer aloud. Aaron's quiet for a moment, long enough for Gabriel to explain about the athelas and then some -- he takes in a breath and blows it out.

"I am glad," is what he says, and though he gave it careful thought, there's no discernible doubt in Aaron's voice. "I was so involved with all of this even when I was off-network -- it was no secret that the clinic was Numbered-friendly -- that not having one was inconvenient at best and dangerous at worst." This is true, of course; it's one reason, but not the only one. The others just happen to be less pragmatic, less easy to explain.

[thebalrogslayer]

Gabriel's silent for a moment as well, considering his reply. "I've often thought that it might be dangerous off network if you're still stuck within one of the boundaries." But he has a bolt hole - if he could drag himself away from his friends here. "Dealing with the aftermath from the snake must have been a bit of a shocker." He shakes his head. It was bad enough knowing what was going on, not knowing the whole detail must have made things worse.

"Julien knows you from before, doesn't he? Do you know Killian too?" ...Now that he thinks of it, aside from those two he's the one who's been on the network longest of his close friends, and the longest of those from the same background. Aside from Aaron now.

[elfstoned]

"The answer is yes, to both," says Aaron. "I knew them both through the clinic. I've known Killian longer, but I know Julien better."

They've arrived -- it's just as tiny and hole-in-the-wall as Aaron promised. The light is dim, the walls are brick, and the menu is scribbled in chalk up high on the wall behind the counter. It's mostly sandwiches and coffee. Aaron will pull the door open and hold it, letting Gabriel go in first.

[thebalrogslayer]

Nodding his thanks to Aaron, Gabriel slips past him into the cafe. He looks around for a moment, interested, skim reading the menu for a moment but then turning his attention back to Aaron as he leads the way up to the counter. "You know Julien well, don't you? He was pretty upset about you leaving the network, I know that." The question is a touch loaded, and he looks at Aaron sideways as he asks. Was there something more to their relationship?

[elfstoned]

It's a question with a loaded answer, if the flash of sadness that crosses his face is anything to go by. "I did," he says, "and I like to think I still do, but a lot's changed."

Here, Aaron gets a reprieve; the cafe is not empty by all accounts but there's no line, and he can spend a few seconds talking with the woman behind the counter. She knows him, and they're clearly on friendly terms -- it's only a minute until the order is placed and paid for and Aaron and Gabriel are settled small table by a window. The chatter around them is enough to mask anything they might talk about; their conversation will be fairly private, as long as they don't draw attention.

Aaron won't open the topic back up again, but when he looks at Gabriel, his expression isn't closed; he's willing to discuss it more.