I think I can figure it out, but I'm gonna need a little help to get me through it Who: Zeke and Avizeh Where: SOHS When: Early afternoon
Zeke woke up Saturday morning to find that it was 1. raining (awesome, Zeke liked rain, truth be told), 2. that he had no power (well that just sucked), and 3. that there were demons still running rampant through town (which was just balls). Even though he did have weekends off from work, so he didn't have to technically go anywhere, the thought of staying in his apartment with no power and demons doing demon things didn't sit well with the air elemental. So, to the high school it was, and he hoped they might have wireless there so he might be able to surf the Internet or something while he was there, or at least didn't mind if he played guitar for a while. And coffee. Good lord, Zeke hoped they had coffee.
In order to do that, though, he first had to coax Scooby Doo out of his hiding place. Which happened to be in his shower.
The black lab was curled up as much as he could be, long legs tucked underneath him and was shaking from head to toe. Zeke didn't like to pick fights with anyone, much less his familiar who he'd be stuck with for the rest of his life, so he took a seat on his bathroom floor and glanced over at the dog. "Scooby, you know, someday I'm going to want to take a shower in there. You know, when the power comes back on."
There's monsters out there! I'm staying right where I am.
"Demons. Not monsters."
Same difference. Scooby looked up at him, big brown eyes blinking in the semi-darkness of the room. We'll be safer if we don't go outside, you know.
"We'll be safer where there's power. And with other people who can help defend the place." Zeke reached over to scratch behind Scooby's ears, hoping the simple touch would comfort the dog. Yesterday, the lab had all but freaked out when the demons first arrived, and he wasn't doing any better as the time wore on. Poor thing, one would think after the last attack Scooby would remember what to do, but his memory wasn't all that good. Kind of like his air elemental, come to think of it. "I'll even bring a whole box of dog cookies with me."
The mention of cookies brought Scooby's head up a little. Cookies?
Twenty minutes later, Zeke managed to get Scooby to make the run to his car, a bag tossed over one shoulder and his guitar in his other hand. Of all his options - and Zeke had considered a few, sitting in his car with Scooby whining next to him that they needed to go and go now - the high school was probably the best bet. And for once in his life, Zeke didn't allow himself to get sidetracked on the ride over, heading straight for the gym.
Avizeh... only had a partial excuse for her delay in getting to a shelter. She had no car, and walking to shelter today had seemed a truly horrible idea. But she had been offered a ride the previous day, and had passed it over. She had insisted that sticking it out alone in her little apartment would be a thrilling experience. The area was safe (supposedly, it had been blessed, and Avizeh's family put a lot of faith into such a thing working), and should make for some interesting film.
The theory was all well and good, until the power went out. That... that ruined everything.
Still, she had thought to hang in there. She even made it a few hours. But before long she caved, and began calling around in attempts to find a ride. It turned out there was a help line for this sort of thing, but they had made Avizeh feel all of two inches tall for waiting til the last minute. She deserved it, of course, and she knew that.
The shelter proved a swift distraction. She was assigned a cot in a corner, cast partially in shadows by the bleachers. She was perfectly fine with this. It was a good people-watching position, which she had immediately taken to doing - camera and all. After all, when was Avizeh ever without a camera? She sat on her cot, perched indian-style, filming various people milling about. It was rather fascinating, how people reacted to crisis.
Zeke's cot was also near the corner, by the bleachers, and he went to set down his bag and guitar. "See, Scoob, this won't be so bad," he said, turning around to look down at the dog - and Scooby was already gone. He caught a glimpse of a long black tail coming from the side of the bleachers. His familiar had already found himself another hiding place.
"Seriously?" he asked, going over to where the dog was hiding. "My cot is right over there. We're not going to be here that long." Oh god, I hope we're not here that long. Zeke had simply not brought enough stuff to do to last him more than overnight, though he doubted the demons would just disappear like the monsters under the bed when your parents went to see if they were really there. Wishful thinking and all of that.
I'll stay here for now, thank you. Scooby looked up at Zeke, Please? Just for a bit?
Zeke sighed, running a hand over his hair. "Yeah." At least he could see where Scooby was from his spot, that was something, right? Glancing over the gym again, he spotted a woman with a camera nearby, sitting cross-legged on her cot, and he smiled. Yep, he was just the crazy guy in the corner talking to his dog, it was okay.
Oh-ho. Caught. Avizeh grinned, an impish and only slightly sheepish expression. She could not be ashamed however - that was good footage. "It does not appear that he is listening," she commented. Might as well, they were practically neighbors. At least, temporarily. "I find it heartening that they let you bring him here with you. I have heard of shelters turning people with pets away, and the thought always saddened me." To put it lightly. She couldn't see the animal shelter or PETA commercials without feeling teary-eyed, along with the strong desire to start another new revolution.
"He so rarely does," Zeke said, shrugging, ignoring the loud Hey! that was in his head, unsure if the woman could hear it or not. Scooby had a way of forgetting that, hello, not everyone needed to know that he was a familiar, and not just a regular dog. "I can't imagine going somewhere that wouldn't take him, demons or no demons. He goes where I go, now." And to think, when he'd first found Scooby, before he knew what the dog would become, he didn't think he'd have the space and time needed to raise such a big dog. "Did you bring a pet with you, too?"
"Oh!" Avizeh's reaction to the voice in her head was alarming, but not frightening. Her Uncle Azaz had a familiar, though she seldom conversed with it. It was not at all the talkative sort. She grinned and looked over to the dog, briefly giving it a little wave before looking back to his... owner? Companion? What was the term for such a union? She believed she'd heard someone use the term 'chosen' before. "No, I haven't any pets. I haven't been in the country long."
Sometimes people's reactions could go right over Zeke's head, given that he rarely admitted what he was feeling out loud. But her surprise, however, he noticed, mostly because of the "Oh!" that went with it. "I just have Scooby," he said, glancing over at the dog again before shaking his head, "and I named him before I learned he was going to be, you know, my familiar." Hell, everyone and their grandmother could probably hear the dog talking in here, Scooby had a lot to learn about being subtle. "Oh? Where are you from?"
It seemed to Avizeh that her accent was no longer as off-putting as it had initially been upon her arrival. Perhaps she truly was adjusting! The thought pleased her. "Tehran, by way of Paris." Or was it the other way around? Okay, so her English was not yet perfect. "Are you and Scooby natives?" she asked, smiling faintly.
Tehran and Paris? "That's pretty awesome," he said, "haven't done a lot of travelling myself. Originally from here, I was living in New York City until just over a year ago, I think." Was it really that long? To be honest, Zeke had a hard time keeping track of time, whether because he forgot to look at his watch or his phone, or forgetting to mark things on a calendar. "Oh, and I'm Zeke, by the way. And you already know Scooby, kind of. If he ever stops being scared and comes out of there."
Avizeh grinned again. "Should that happen, I look forward to meeting him formally. My name is Avizeh. It is a pleasure to meet you, Zeke." Now came a familiar part in Avizeh's conversations: determining whether or not she ought to turn the camera off. She quite liked to leave it going - one never knew what they would capture, of course - but many found it rude. So she set the camera in her lap, though left it running for now. It wasn't terribly noticeable, and anything unwanted captured could be easily erased. "I had never been to America before moving here. I would have quite liked to see New York, but my flight did not allow it."
Zeke grinned too, big and wide; happiness was the easiest emotion for him to express. In spite of everything else going on around them, and the fact that they were camping out in his old high school gym, in the moment, things weren't doing too bad. Zeke, for his part, didn't really notice that the camera was still running and being a journalist himself, he probably wouldn't mind it, so he came over next to her and sat on the floor by her cot. "Good to meet you, Avizeh," he said, turning to face her. "And New York is a place everyone should see once, I think. But it's a lot of people crammed into so small a place. I loved my job, loved my co-workers, I just missed this place more."
That happiness was a catchy thing, and Avizeh quite liked it. And she couldn't help but notice, theirs were not the only happy expressions in the room. There would always be people who saw the best in any situation, and tried to focus on what they had, rather than what they did not. The human spirit was a fascinating thing, Avizeh found, and not an easy thing to break. "It sounds claustrophobic," she admitted, with a slight chuckle. "But an experience everyone should have at least once, I think. What did you do there?"
For the most part, Zeke was a pretty relaxed guy, and it took a lot to get him worked up. And, if he was upset, he wouldn't be talking about it to anyone - not his family, not his friends, and not the woman he'd just met, no offense meant of course. He just handled a lot inside himself, and it was easier to be the laidback guy who always seemed to be just a little distracted than an emotional trainwreck like some of his friends. "It was," he agreed, "especially for me." He'd noticed it when he was in the city, but knowing what he was now, yeah, it made sense he'd prefer open spaces to crowded city streets. "I was working for a magazine, doing layout and copyediting stuff. I do the same thing here, just for not as good a publication."
Avizeh found that to be a telling statement, as if to say he preferred this location, but the job he'd had in New York. "That sounds like fascinating work," she replied. "May I ask which publication you are with now?" A harmless enough question, hopefully, and he could choose to not answer at all if he preferred. It was not Avizeh's intention to alienate the man.
Zeke let out a little chuckle. "You ever heard of the Scarlet Oak Sun?" he asked. "It's a free publication, mostly advertisements more than anything else. I have a hard time calling it a newspaper, but at least it's a job in my field, right?" The question didn't alienate him, no. A lot of print journalists were out of a job, with the economic downturn. "What about you, what do you do?"
Avizeh smiled sheepishly. "I'm afraid I haven't. Though now of course I'll have to look for it, in attempts to spot your handy-work." Not that she'd have any idea what Zeke had done, but still. "I'm a film-maker," she answered with a smile. "Documentaries. Nothing that made rounds stateside yet, but my next may yet be picked up by HBO."
He chuckled, "It's not like I write articles or anything, I do the layout work, what gets put where. The behind the scenes stuff." And really, that was what he liked about his job, getting to play with the different pages and make it all fit together. It was distracting enough to keep the air elemental's mind somewhat focused on what he was doing, so long as he also had the TV or his headphones on while he worked. On stage, though, when he got to play with his band, that was when he really liked having the spotlight on him. Well, Calista really, he was just happy to jam in front of a crowd. "Documentaries? That's awesome. What are you working on now? Demon stuff? I mean, your camera's still running and all." Didn't bother him in the slightest, just something he noticed.
Oh, she had to grin. He had noticed! "I can turn it off if it bothers you," Avizeh offered, sheepishly. "It's habit. I like to keep it rolling all the time. You never know what you'll get. No my last project was on the reaction to the Light of May in Iran. As all supernaturals are effectively against the law there, I went along with a family being smuggled over the border. I have high hopes for it."
Zeke waved a hand, not thinking she'd find that much interesting about him anyway, unless she wanted him to play guitar or something, which happened to be over by his own cot. He'd grab it in a second. "I read a little bit about that, how other countries reacted to the Light of May," he said, still a journalism major at heart, and one of the websites he had open all the time was from one news source or another. Really, anything but Fox News. "That's amazing, that they let you film all of that. I do hope they pick it up, so everyone can see it." It was the kind of work that made an impact. Zeke just played in his band and screwed around on his computer all day.
"I came to view the family I traveled with as a second family of my own," Avizeh admitted. "If we had been caught, all of us would have been imprisoned, at the very least. Execution was much more likely. That sort of experience creates a permanent bond. I myself am... oh, what is the English expression..." She frowned for a moment and snapped her fingers as she tried to bring it to mind. "Vanilla! Pure vanilla human," she grinned. "But I had a friend who was not. When I saw what she went through I wanted to bring worldwide awareness."
He tucked his knees up against his chest, resting his chin on top of them. Zeke tried to imagine running for your life like that, knowing what would happen if you got caught... and he just couldn't. All his family had done was bicker and fight about his elementalism, something that made him more uneasy than he was willing to admit. Zeke was still just Zeke, even knowing what he was now. "You all made it though, right?" he asked, his brain thinking of possibilities, most of them bad. He liked happy endings, everything worked out best that way. "I thought I was too, 'till I got that guy." He glanced back at where Scooby was hiding. That reminded him, he'd brought treats and toys for the dog to play with.
"Oh, yes," Avizeh answered, smiling warmly. "The family I traveled with is safe in Paris. Happy, last I heard from them." They still e-mailed regularly - several times a week, really. They were family now. She grinned as she looked over at Scooby, who still seemed quite unhappy with this entire situation. "May I ask what you are?" she asked, looking back to Zeke. "Feel free to say no. I'm aware it's not any of my business, but a matter of curiosity."
"I'm glad. A happy ending for your documentary after all." Still listening to Avizeh, Zeke got up and went to his own cot, which happened to be quite close to hers, and dug through his bag until he found the box of Milkbone cookies he'd brought for Scooby, grabbing that and his guitar and heading back to the familiar. He sat back down on the floor and left the box where his familiar could see it. "I'm an elemental. Air. Kind of explains a few things, actually." Like why it was hard for him to keep a coherent train of thought sometimes, or to focus on one thing at a time.
"Are you indeed?" Avizeh asked, cheerful as could be. "I've never met an air. Before this day, that is," she added. "I have family in the area, and in them each element but is represented. I confess, I often wish I was one of the same." She was quite certain she would have loved having a familiar. That bond simply amazed her.
"My grandmother was one, I think," he said. "Only elemental in my family, I'm pretty sure. She tried to tell me about it when I was little." And my mom promptly told me she was crazy. Is she choking on those words now, knowing Grammie Matilda was right? "I'm still learning about it. And I haven't met anyone who's told me they're an elemental too yet... but I can get kind of distracted when it comes to that sort of thing." Zeke shrugged, and opened the box of cookies. He saw Scooby's head turn in his direction, and the elemental smiled. "Makes me wonder if I'd get along with 'em, other elementals."
"To my understanding, certain elements compliment each other, while others oppose," Avizeh replied. "My cousin is a water, her father a fire... sometimes you can see a war zone flash in their eyes when they butt heads," she laughed softly. She found new elementals fascinating, obviously. "Have you heard of a place called Joining Hands?" she asked. "I've started filming there, for my next project. I've been focusing on those that have been turned, but they often help those that are new to what they are. They might be able to introduce you to other elementals, if that would be something of interest to you."
He nodded, fishing out a cookie and holding it out to Scooby. "That makes total sense, actually. Kind of like how I don't really like to be anywhere that makes me feel all closed in." Another reason why living in New York hadn't worked out well for him. And Joining Hands, Joining Hands, Joining Hands... where had he heard of that place before? "OH! Yes, I know it!" he said after a second of staring off into space, trying to place the name in his head. "They had something about it in our paper, a few weeks back. Keep meaning to stop by to see it, but... yeah." It was Zeke-speak for saying he'd forgot. "How goes your documentary there?"
Scooby, on the other hand, came out of his hiding place a little, enough to approach Zeke's side and snag the offered cookie. Did you bring real dog food too? he asked, collapsing onto the floor next to him without any sort of grace whatsoever.
"Of course, buddy. Say hi to Avizeh."
"Well!" Avizeh answered. "I only just started filming... mostly behind the scenes stuff, getting a feel for how things are done. I haven't picked out any subjects or focuses - and of course, they would have to agree to being featured. And this," she said, gesturing around them to the gym they were in, "Has put a significant snag in things." Meaning, of course, the demons. Yet Avizeh filmed everything. Who knew what would end up a project and what wouldn't? She never wanted to miss a thing.
She grinned widely again as Scooby came out, and gave another wave. "Hello there!"
Zeke nodded, remembering his classmates in broadcast journalism, all the equipment they'd lugged around and the hours spent in the editing studio on campus. "Maybe the demons would end up being another project for you, you never know, right? Something good has got to come out of all of this." Though, getting to meet someone new while finding shelter, that was good in Zeke's book too, otherwise he might never have met Avizeh and that would just suck. "There's so much new stuff going on since the Light that I think it would be hard to pick out just one thing to focus on. At least for me." But then again, Zeke was the kind of guy who couldn't focus long enough to decide if he wanted Chinese or pizza for dinner. They were both just so good!
The black lab sat up, and even though he was leaning against Zeke a little, he was still almost the same height as Zeke was, as he was also sitting on the floor. Hi! Scooby said back, tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth for a second. Are you a friend of Zeke's?
"I'm the same way," Avizeh replied. "So I choose to just grab everything and let the projects form themselves." And in the end, they shaped her just as much as they shaped themselves. She laughed softly at Scooby, praying his voice picked up on camera. If nothing else, she just wanted to know if it was possible. "I am now!" she answered decidedly. "Does that make me a friend of yours, too?"
"Exactly! In college it used to drive my professors crazy when I'd just show up and find an article idea out of thin air, and then change my mind a hundred times before it was due." The bonus? He always could find something to write about, it was just a matter of how much it interested him. And how much he decided to procrastinate about starting said project.
Scooby didn't hesitate. Of course! Ooooh, do you play ball? Like with tennis balls? Those are my favorite. Can't go outside and play today. Too scary.
Zeke laughed. "I think he likes you."
Oh, Avizeh could relate to this man. Could she ever. "My professors found me exhausting," she said, grinning widely. "Both times. I used to be a nurse. In the end, it wasn't for me." And the memories of the sad attempt still haunted her. "But it lead me to journalism. The destination is usually worth the ride." She laughed brightly and happily at Scooby piping up again. "Of course! Who doesn't?"
The expression on Zeke's face matched Avizeh's. It seemed he'd found another kindred soul here after all. "Same here," he said, "though I will admit I was never a nurse. Why did you change majors?" He couldn't imagine being in the medical field, especially not with the revelations of demons in their world now. Too much destruction, too much death for the elemental to even contemplate. Hell, he couldn't deal with his own emotions nine-tenths of the time, much less trying to take care of someone else too.
If the dog could have grinned, he would have. As it was Scooby was three seconds away from pouncing Avizeh playfully and trying to play right then and there. Oh! Oh! Zeke, she has to come play with us in the park sometime. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease?
"Oh, I had graduated. I worked as a nurse in Al-Yarmouk hospital in Baghdad. I felt, at the time, it had been my calling. But I was not cut out for it. I was surrounded by death and the brutality of war; every lost patient felt far too personal, I wasn't able to detach myself from any of it. I didn't last a year - I fled back to Paris and stayed with my parents while I figured myself out." Not a happy tale, but Avizeh was an open person. At the lowest depths of her depression, she'd been pouring every thought and feeling out on video blogs on the internet. She had no filter. "It turned out for the best. I think I needed that to get on the right path. I always knew I wanted to do good, I just didn't know how." And because Scooby was being too adorable to ignore, she leaned over to give him a good scratching. She wasn't sure if familiars liked being petted, but there was one way to find out.
Zeke's head tilted to the side as he listened to her story. A nurse in Baghdad. Huh. In that moment his own tale paired in comparison, but her openness about the experience was refreshing. Just imagining what it might have been like, his brain latching onto that train of thought and following it while she continued talking, it didn't surprise him when she said she wasn't cut out for it. He knew he wouldn't be. "Everything happens for a reason, right? Our lives find a way of correcting what's wrong, one way or another." Like him moving back to Scarlet Oak. Zeke was pretty sure his mother still hadn't forgiven him for that. It was his life, not hers. She'd learn to deal with it. "But now it's you and the camera and all is well, right?"
Avizeh didn't have to worry about Scooby not liking the attention. The lab moved closer to her, resting his head against her leg so she could keep on scratching. Zeke laughed at the sight, moving to pull his guitar out of its case. Having something to do with his hands would keep his mind off how many people were actually in the gym with him, and if Avizeh had a camera out, who said he couldn't have his guitar too?
And she would have agreed with that logic, were she telepathic. "All is well," she agreed, smiling. "Well. Considering our current circumstances," she had to add. Demons, and all. Things were bad outside these walls, but inside... she had made a new friend. And that counted for a lot. "Things can always be worse. I'm glad to have met you, at least." She grinned and looked down at Scooby, continuing to scratch and rub his ears. "And you too, of course."
"Well... yeah. So long as we don't go outside." Not to say that Zeke had forgotten about the demons, he hadn't, it just hadn't been on his mind right that second. He'd been too caught up in talking to Avizeh, someone he counted as a new friend. It didn't matter so much how they'd met, not his mind. Good story to tell later, though. "And same here, definitely. Right, Scooby?" The dog barked an affirmative, and Zeke laughed. Hey, something good had to come from all of this, right?