Catch-all July

[muscovy]

Who: Muscovy and assorted people
What: Lots of things
Where: Lots of places, see subject lines
When: Throughout July
Warnings: TBA

Comments

July 10th, 1301, Firo

[muscovy]

[It is the middle of the night, or what counts as night in this place, when Firo's door creaks open just a bit - only far enough to let inside a small nation. Stealthy out of habit, but not pointedly so, he pads over towards the immortal's bed and squints against the dark, trying to figure out not only where it is but also which side Firo's head is on.

In the end, he lets Firo's breathing guide him. Once he's found the bed, he feels around a bit to find the end of the blanket so he can push it aside before pulling himself into the bed and won't sit on the blanket once he's up there. That would make slipping under it just unnecessarily hard.]

[foundafamily]

[Firo sleeps with his hand tucked under his pillow, resting on his knife just in case somebody ever does try to sneak up on him. He's immediately awake and alarmed when he feels someone's weight on the bed. His arm is already in motion when he looks down and sees that familiar face.]

...It's just you.

[He relaxes and draws his hand out from under his pillow, leaving his knife behind. He props himself up into a full sitting position.]

What're you doin'? Are you okay?

[muscovy]

[He notices the motion - not with a pillow, but he's seen Firo react similarly before, and does what helped before, which is remain perfectly still and hope that he wakes up enough in time before hurting him. It'd be something that you can just do nothing about, but it would still not be nice. At least stab wounds tend to heal quickly.

But luckily, as before, his big brother wakes up in time and pulls his hand out from under the pillow.]

I am fine. I just came to sleep next to you, yes?

[It's something that he ended up doing regularly back on the planet. Not every night, not even every other night, because it was hot and finding a good place for even one person to lie down, much less two, could be a bit complicated while they were wandering - dry patches in a rainforest can be hard to come by - but often enough that it had just become familiar normalcy. Well, doing it with Firo, specifically. There had been others before with whom it was just as normal or rather, even more normal, because they would just sleep in the same bed to begin with. Even if they didn't technically need much sleep, like his lord father.]

[foundafamily]

[Firo slides over to give him a little more room. Muscovy acts like this is so normal--maybe Firo should take a cue from him.]

Oh.

[Is this what kids do? Czes had always acted like a kid back home, but Firo knew that he was more eager to go to Ennis for anything. So far, Firo just hadn't clicked with him and he knew better than to force things with the kid. So even with the little brother he can remember, Firo doesn't recall if this is a routine thing. Still, he supposes Czes probably did come to Ennis in the night if he needed something.]

You sure? You didn't have a bad dream or anything?

[The kid might not want to say it outright; that much Firo can understand.]

[muscovy]

[Muscovy will immediately drop himself into the space that Firo just cleared and, since Firo is sitting, not lie down but instead pull his knees against his chest and wrap his arms around him and look at Firo, whose sitting height is still taller than his own, but their eye levels are still a good deal closer now.]

Not worse than normal.

[He barely remembers his dreams, and while he knows that they are nice sometimes, he remembers enough terrible ones that he is thankful that they are normally gone by the time that he wakes up.

Today he remembers it, mostly, and it is yet another argument for him not wanting to remember them. In his dream, he lived again through his first encounter with Rey in Hadriel, but then it suddenly was Firo who didn't want him around or to even be close to him, and then they were suddenly back on the planet and were the Rey and Firo from there who suddenly tried to avoid him and didn't want to think of him as family anymore.

But then he woke up and he knew that Firo was in the next room over, and while he'd refrained from sneaking into bed with him because this Firo doesn't remember him, only isn't being silly about them still being family despite that... But tonight, he needed to know that he could still be close, was still welcome, and he felt very alone in this big room all by himself.

Which is why he came over.]

July 6th, City Guard HQ, Maketh

[muscovy]

[It's around noon when there is a knock at the front door of the city guard's house.

Outside stands a boy of roughly 1m height, sporting braided hair, a medieval tunic over a sci-fi jumper and an mostly empty backpack. Also daggers hanging more or less obscured at his sides.]

Maketh Tua is here, yes?

[mismanagement]

[Maketh rises from her desk to open the door, standing at attention when she opens it. There's a moment of confusion as she stares down at the child - how strange to think they have children here - before she remembers this was arranged.

Uniforms. Sashes. Of course.]

I am Maketh Tua. Welcome.

[muscovy]

Good.

[He looks her over quickly - not too short, but fairly thin which reduces the length of the sash - as he replies.]

If we do this inside it will be safer, yes?

[As comparatively safe as the streets are now, he'd still rather not get to work in a vulnerable place when there's a safe building right behind Maketh.

[mismanagement]

[Maketh smiles a little.] Very true. Come in, then.

[She steps back from the door, motioning him inside.]

July 11th, outside 1501 and around town, Alayne

[muscovy]

[Sometime late in the morning there is a knock at the door of 1501. Whoever opens it will find Muscovy outside. He's equipped as usually - daggers and backpack, though it seems to be empty this time and has nothing attached to it - but currently has no fairies with him, at least nowhere where they could be seen.

It wasn't difficult to find Alayne in the end - after all she has to walk by Muscovy's house, whose window is looking out on the spiral path connecting the houses, to get to her own. And while Muscovy doesn't spend too much time in his room, he's still seen her walk past often enough to catch on to her living down the path, and being the little stalker that he is, he soon decided to follow her stealthily to find out where she was going.]

[alayne]

[ she is only out briefly during the day, too fearful of the city, the monsters and the people both. Soon, she will have to face at least one of them and better the residents before the monsters, she knows. Finding Arya has been a blessing and after that, she has needed little else. To anyone else, they are a girl and Alayne Stone, two simple girls who live together. That they are Arya and Sansa Stark, ladies, sisters, must forever kept secret, for their sake, for their safety.

Lies are protection, after all and they cannot be bad, if they are that.

When she opens the door, only a crack, she seems surprised. It is the boy who helped her, the one who kept the company of little winged creature. In her panic and fear, she has forgotten his name, forgot if she had even asked for it.

She is wearing one of the dresses she carried with her into the city, good cotton in pale blue. she looks at him for a moment and dips her chin in a form of greeting ]

Hello.

[muscovy]

Hello.

[She looks ...finer, now. It's the dress, he assumes, and that she doesn't look so scared and dusty from having been on the ground with a giant spider towering over her.

Which, in a way, is why he is here.]

You look very pretty today.

[Not that. But it's true, so he doesn't see any harm in saying it. He's here to take her out so they can find knives for her that she can learn how to fight with, so that she will be able to defend herself properly the next time something, be it one of those spiders or another creature, finds her.]

[alayne]

My thanks.

[ she doesn't quite shrink into herself at the compliment, but remains somewhat wary through it. Most ladies would have flushed prettily and thought it sweet, but Alayne remembers Sansa Stark and her betrothed who found her face very pretty and so spared it from the beating the rest of her received.

she straightens herself. there is no need for such thoughts today. ]

Have you been well?

July 15th, a grocery store, Carlisle. Muscovy's great at saying hi.

[muscovy]

[In a little street in Singapore... no, actually, in a street in Hadriel, that probably was broad before some buildings on the sides of it fell into disrepair to the point where parts of them cover the street. Anyway, on this street, Muscovy one day spots someone who looks awfully familiar. And after following him around for a little while, he recognizes him. The silly monk.

Almost skipping, he follows him with the typical impossible stealth of his, unnoticeable unless you look directly at him, until Carlisle enters a store.

He enters after him, but stops once he is close enough to be in a range in which he can speak at a normal indoor voice volume and be easily understood.]

Your brain isn't being silly, yes?

[tongueamok]

[Unaware he'd been followed into the store and thoroughly distracted by his attempt at grocery shopping, Carlisle jumps at the voice, spinning to see who is behind him. It takes a second before his gaze goes downward to find the stranger.

He's not a stranger, though. Carlisle relaxes a hair, having been made aware of Muscovy's presence in Hadriel thanks to a phone call from Rey. His expression is impassive, eyes narrowing.]

Ah. I was wondering when I might run into you.

[muscovy]

Why?

[So Carlisle knew that he is here, somehow. But how, and if he applies meaning to him, does that mean that he remembers him from the Tranquility?]

[tongueamok]

Because this city is only so big, and I was told you were here.

[His brow furrows as he looks over the lad. Why was it the Door had brought him, in particular, from the jungle? Would it bring others?]

July 13th, near the southern bridge, Bucky

[muscovy]

[He's been following Bucky for a bit, in that stealthy way of his that renders him unnoticeable unless the person happens to look at him directly. It started out of interest - he's seen quite a lot of things since he was first chased away from his home by fairies, but this is the first time that he sees an arm that is that obviously made of steel, on a person that seems to not be built but born - and then he looked up and noticed that they'd gotten into a much less populated and not so nice area.

And then the man had been attacked. Or attacked. Muscovy isn't sure which it is, it seems to be a mix of both. And then it is over, and the man is muttering to himself in... His heart almost skips a beat. It's not fully understandable, but close enough that he gets the gist of it even without having gotten used to how the man forms his words.

A dialect of Old Rus'ian that he has never heard. And if he speaks to himself like that... does that mean that he is one of his sisters' people? Or maybe his, even, and he just cannot recognize it because this place is silly?

He walks a bit closer and uses one of his own dialects, the one of Moscow, to address the man.]

Hello.

[wipedclean]

[There isn't much to do around here but hunt and make sure Steve doesn't get into trouble.

Granted, both of those things could take up quite a bit of time. So really, if he's bored, it's his own fault.

He's in the process of gathering up his most recent kills to bring to Rage's altar when someone approaches and speaks in a familiar tongue. It's... Not quite Russian. Or it is Russian, but not as he knows it. He straightens and stares, frowning at the man for a moment before tilting his head and responding in kind.]

Hello.

[He's cautious. He hasn't heard anyone else here speaking Russian, and the last people he spoke it with were his Hydra team members.]

[muscovy]

You should tell me where you are from, yes?

[Because he would really like to know if he should be able to feel this man and the place just won't let him, or if he's simply not his. Going by his experiences with other places, he assumes the latter, but going by how weird those places can get, both options are entirely possible.

And either way, it is nice to have someone around here who speaks some form of his own language.]

[wipedclean]

[The language the stranger speaks is... Almost but not quite like Russian. It's clear they're in the same family, enough that he can understand what's being said, but it's... Strange.]

I don't have a home.

[Steve would disagree. Steve would insist he's from Brooklyn, but the only attachment to Brooklyn he has is Steve.]

night between July 10th~11th, 1401, Nick

[muscovy]

After having treated Rey and watched over her for a good long while, monitoring her sleep to see if she will be safe to be left alone, Muscovy packs his things and quietly sneaks out of her room -

only to stop with the door half open when he notices that someone is sitting there in the hallway. Nick.

The nation gives the synth a long glance, then turns half away to close the door behind him as silently as possible and then turn towards Nick and simply look at him.

[synthedick]

Nick just watches from his seat in the easy chair, his eyes beacons in the darkness of the room, the brim of his hat illuminated by their glow. Having finished his diagnostics, Nick had left the spare bedroom and gone to check on Rey, only to find she already had company: Muscovy, the child who claimed she was his surrogate mother. The bare bones of his scans had taken longer than expected, and whether she'd put in a call to a medic, or Muscovy was the medic, Nick couldn't tell from just a glance. The kid seemed to be preoccupied with some kind of work on her and Rey seemed as fine as she could be, given the circumstances, so he let them be.

Pulling on his undershirt over his exposed back, he'd slid his remaining arm into his button-up, the buttons still lying on the floor near the coffee table. He could sew them back on later. For now, he and the boy should probably talk. He jerks his head back, a gesture for Muscovy to move closer.

[muscovy]

Muscovy comes closer, but only a few steps. Close enough that nobody has to raise their voice, even though he thinks that Rey should sleep soundly for a good long while, even if a hoard of elephants waltzes through the room - even so, he doesn't want to risk waking her up by being loud. She needs the rest, and he assumes that she will only get it if she's too unconscious to try and move.

And she's stable enough now to do that resting by herself, he stayed long enough, monitoring her, to be sure of that.

And now there is Nick who obviously wants to ...talk? and quite frankly looks a bit scary with his glowing eyes in the dim light.

[synthedick]

At least Muscovy does come closer; while Nick suspects that Rey is out like a light, he wants to cut out any risk of awakening her. She needs the rest; he doesn't.

Though the darkness hides his concerned expression, Nick's eyes continue shining brightly. He'd left the light off when coming into the living area, not wanting any sign of his presence to startle Muscovy as he tended to her. Knowing just how off-putting aspects of his appearance can be -- eyes included -- he speaks first, keeping his tone low, hoping he's not frightening the kid too much.

"How's she doing?"