Isobel Hughes ➤ Rapunzel (sanslumieres) wrote in musingslogs, @ 2011-03-08 23:17:00 |
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Entry tags: | elizabeth bennet, rapunzel |
Who: Eli & Isobel
What: Conversations in person are much better than those over the phone
Where: Reliquary
When: Monday morning, 8am
Warnings: High-tension emotion, but otherwise? nada.
It was early, around 8am, when Isobel came to the door of Reliquary, looking more than a little tired, blue eyes that were usually bright and lively were shadowed that morning. Unsure if the shop was opening this early, she hesitated for a moment, worrying at her lip before giving in and pulling the door open, the growing familiarity of Reliquary enough to ease some of her stresses. Of course, the coming conversation with Eli would probably whisk any of that relaxation away.
Her hand tightened around the strap of her shoulder bag as she picked her way around, feeling a bit silly as she sought out Eli’s familiar presence. “Hello?” she finally called out, words still rounded and thick from a piercing that wasn’t healing as quick as she wished it would.
Eli was in the kitchen, working through the menu for the day, apron tied around thin hips and circles dark around his own eyes. It had been a few very long days, and the short-sleeved shirt he wore to work in did nothing to hide the rope marks on his wrists.
He toweled his hands off when he heard the front door, and he pushed open the door between the kitchen and the counter area with his elbow, throwing the towel in the sink as he did so. “Iso,” he said, coming out from behind the counter and putting his hands on her shoulders, looking at her. He didn’t know about the piercing yet, and he couldn’t tell she’d gotten it from the single word. “Do sit down. I’ll bring us both some English Breakfast tea,” he offered.
As Eli approached, Isobel’s gaze went immediately to the marks around his wrists, a brow arching, but before she had the opportunity to ask about them, Eli was in front of her. Eli, Eli, Eli. The only family on this side of things, the only family she had spent more than three weeks in contact with, for that matter. She didn’t answer at first, closing her eyes and taking a calming breath, trying to summon some iota of ease within the cloud of emotion that was settling over her world.
Finally, she opened her eyes and offered him a smile, though she shook her head in the negative. “Something cool for me?” she asked, feeling a little sheepish for being so picky. “Mouth is still sore. Hot tea would just...” She wave a hand in the air and ducked out from beneath his hands, saving him the awkwardness of deciding when to pull away. Isobel was becoming aware that he wasn’t exactly the huggy type of person, and she could respect that.
The way she rounded the vowels in her words and lengthened her soft consonants made Eli pause. That, coupled with the request for something cold, made him look at her mouth and then up at her eyes. “What did you do, Iso?” he asked as she ducked away. He had a enough college students come in with shiny new barbells in their tongues to know the signs. A few more sentences, and metal would be clicking against the back of her teeth, and he wondered if this was what had set Ray off. “Sit,” he said, motioning to a table. “I’ll bring you something cold, and bring myself something stronger.” He thought he might need it.
“Something apparently stupid,” Isobel said as she took a seat at the nearest table, dropping her bag to the floor beside her chair. Leaning forward, she pillowed her head against her folded arms, watching as Eli shuffled back off to the kitchen. “You can get me something stronger, too. But not too strong. I have an interview this morning.”
Eli returned with a flask of something, and two iced teas, both of which he poured just a touch of whatever was in the flask into. He took his own seat then, and he looked at her for a long minute before speaking. “What sort of interview?” he asked harmlessly.
Fingers wrapped around the glass of tea, giving it a little swirl to mix the contents of the flask into it, keeping to silence until she had had a long drink, sucking on one of the ice cubes that she filched from the glass. “Uhm. A restaurant near Bathos. Someone on the forum... Holden? He owns it and he’s hiring and they have benefits and more hours and...” Shoulders shrugged up slightly, finally lifting her gaze to meet Eli’s own. “I could use the money. Mom’s money’s running out, so... I guess I’ll see what happens.” Another drink and she shifted in her seat, deciding to push the conversation into a direction that was not on her.
“What happened to your wrists?” Isobel asked, inclining her head towards them slightly. “I didn’t know you were into bondage games because that looks like rope burn.” A small joke, probably unwanted given the circumstances, but she was ignorant of the real cause of those rope marks.
“A job that didn’t go quite as anticipated,” Eli replied smoothly, glad (in that moment) that she knew about EIT and he didn’t have to lie, not precisely. And he wasn’t falling for that subject change, either. “You’re certain this Holden bloke is trustworthy?” he asked, even as he reached back to the counter and grabbed a pad and paper and pushed it over to her. “The name of the restaurant, if you please,” he said, and it really wasn’t a request, despite the please.
He sat back, then, and he looked at her with sharply intense blue eyes. “Finnegan messaged me.”
A look of surprise crossed over her features at the request of the restaurant’s name, but she knew well enough to oblige Eli’s protectiveness. Taking the pen up, she scrawled the restaurant’s name, Dorsia, along with it’s owner’s name directly beneath it before pushing it back towards Eli. “I have no idea if he’s trustworthy. I have no idea if my boss right now is trustworthy, because that’s the sort of thing I don’t really put a lot of thought into.” The words might have been slightly snapped out, though their effect was softened by the round shape of her words.
When he turned the subject back towards what had brought them together in the first place, Isobel had to look away, unable to meet that sharp gaze Eli gave her. “Mmm. Did he yell at you too? Tell you how stupid I was behaving?” The relaxation had fled, replaced by a certain irritation, her words short and without any kindness.
“I believe he is worried,” Eli said; the understatement of the century, he was certain. “He seems to think you’re dating him in order to act out. Is there something about him I should know? Some reason why he would be considered acting out?” Then, leaning forward. “Why are you doing these things, Iso? The hospital, the bungee jumping, the tongue?” He tried to sound casual, but it was Eli, and he never sounded casual. “You’ve nothing to prove here.”
Her face screwed up just a bit at where the conversation was headed, and she chewed on her bottom lip, not entirely happy with this little meeting, but she owed it to Eli to at least listen. “He really upset me when he said that. That... he thought I was just dating him to rebel or....” Isobel gave a small shrug of her shoulders, scooting back in her hair just a little, putting space between herself and Eli. “I dated him because I liked him. Because he was sweet, and kind, and I liked the way he made me feel inside.” Reaching out, she took up her ice tea and drained half of it down before saying anything else.
“I know I don’t have anything to prove. I’m just...” She trailed off, unsure how to phrase her thoughts. “Have you ever felt like there were things you needed to be doing? That your life is supposed to be more than what it currently is? That’s how I feel right now. Like... there’s something I have to offer the world and I don’t know how to find it. So... I just keep doing whatever looks interesting. Whatever seems right at the moment.”
Eli had his own thoughts on why Isobel did what she did; they revolved heavily around the fact that she’d been locked away for years. This, he was sure, was her way of making up for lost time. He had hoped that Ray Finnegan could just keep an eye on her until she got out it all out of her system, but he was starting to think Finnegan might not have it in him. And, admittedly, the fact that Finnegan thought Isobel might consider him a method of rebellion meant there had to be something about the man that Eli didn’t know. None of it made Eli feel very hopeful about the world at large.
“Whatever seems right at the moment?” he asked, a quirk of his brow accompanying the question. “Isobel, how does piercing your tongue coincide with something you’re meant to be doing?”
“I told you it was something stupid.” There was a purse of her lips then as she steadied Eli with a look finally, going so far as to stick it out at him in a show of defiance. “And it seemed like fun. At least until it was over and it hurt to even drink water.” A pout then before she sighed and slumped slightly in her chair. Silence settled around her for a moment, occupying her hands by playing with her glass, rolling it between her hands, playing in the condensation gathered on the sides. And finally, she spoke again. “I miss Estella. I didn’t know what I was missing when I was with her. I kind of liked that feeling. It’s complicated out here, Eli.”
“It is,” Eli agreed. “And, admittedly, you’re handling it much better than I would have. I had a perfectly boring upbringing, and I still wander about lost and with rope burns on my wrists,” he told her honestly. “We all feel like that, Iso. Like we’re not certain, and like we miss being cared for in that unselfish way. It’s more complicated for you, but it’s normal. Did Finnegan not help with that?” he asked, because it should have, he thought - should have replaced what she had lost, at least in some capacity.
She continued to play with her glass, pondering over his question and her own answer. “Ray... did his best. I don’t think he understands what really happened though. I showed him my baby book - Mom gave it to me before she helped me cross over - and he saw the articles, the reports, but...” A sigh before she shook her head. “He has his own issues. His own demons to battle. Maybe helping me with mine is too much for him to handle, too much for anyone to handle.”
“Part of being with someone is helping them, and allowing them to help you,” Eli said, and blast it all if he didn’t feel like the biggest hypocrite in the whole of humanity. “But, admittedly, I don’t do that very well myself.” He smiled at her, and he reached out and covered one of her hands with his own. “Would it be too much to ask you to attempt to only act out in non-dangerous ways? Dye your hair, or wear bright clothing?” The grin on his lips said he was joking - mostly.
“I’m not very good at this relationship thing,” Isobel said a moment later. She blinked in surprise as Eli reached out towards her, watching him with widened eyes that soon narrowed in faux anger at his demands. “Safe, boring ways?” she chirped before the ire in her expression faded and she turned her hand around to give Eli’s a squeeze. “I should probably tell you something, then, before you find out about it some other way.”
Eli did not like the sound of that. “Go on.”
The way his tone changed almost instantly had her stomach tying itself in knots, but she had to be honest with him, at least with him of anyone else in this world. Withdrawing her hand, she got up to her feet, striding some yards away, picking at a bit of the decor in feigned interest. “I... used my ability again. Last weekend.”
Eli sighed, and he watched her get up and walk, and he wanted to tie her somewhere, which seemed to be a recurring theme this week. “Was it a stranger, or someone you knew?” he asked, and he wasn’t sure, just yet, which he thought was worse.
“I know them now?” she said with some measure of uncertainty, glancing back towards Eli, pleading with her eyes for him not to get angry with her. “She lives down on the first floor of Bathos. Gwen. She... I helped her eyes. She said she was tired of glasses, so we tried it and... she might have a friend who needs my help too. So I told her it was okay and that if he wanted it, then I’d help him out too.” Isobel beamed suddenly, approaching their table once more.
“I talked to her yesterday and she said that her eyes were still fine. So, it seems it really works well! Even on something that isn’t an injury! It just... it makes it the way it’s supposed to be!”
Eli’s groan was immediate, before she even managed to finish what she was saying. “Let’s ignore the danger. Does it bother you at all, playing God, Isobel?”
The smile faded from her face almost instantly at those words, a punch she hadn’t dreamed that he would throw. When she spoke again, her voice was barely a whisper. “I... I’m not playing God, Eli,” Isobel said slowly, carefully. “Why would you say that?”
Eli had strong feelings about this subject, and he’d argued about it with Preston often enough that he forgot he’d never broached the subject with Isobel. “We are not from this place, Isobel. What right do we have to do what we’re doing here?”
“Then why do we have these abilities if we’re not supposed to use them? Why give us something and then say ‘No! Bad girl! Don’t touch that!’. It’s just...” Her face pinched slightly, brow furrowed. “I can’t just tell people no if they ask me. I can’t do that, Eli... It’d hurt too much to not help someone if I possibly could.”
Eli tried to remember Preston’s cautionary words, tried to remember to allow Isobel the choice for herself, and he had to push himself to his feet and pace as he spoke. “We are not humans, Isobel. We came here because we wanted to. We are no natural mutation, no natural progression. We’ve no right to involve ourselves in these peoples’ lives this way, to alter their world. We’re like exotic pets and exotic trees, altering an ecosystem we’re not meant to alter. Do you understand?”
Isobel sat back down heavily as Eli chose to pace, holding her head in her hands, trying to make sense of everything. “I didn’t come here because I wanted to,” she said in a soft whisper, shaking her head, fingers pressing back into blond hair. “I came here because my mother thought it was the safest place for me to be. I... had no idea what was going on. I still have no idea what’s going on.” Slowly, she lifted her head, leaning back until her back rested against the chair, face tilted towards the ceiling. Her mood was growing morose, more and more so as the moments wore on, and she just couldn’t see the point of it.
“You make it sound like... we’re some sort of abomination. What’s the point, then, in even staying around. Why don’t we just end it? Save them the trouble of us interfering with their lives.”
Eli moved quickly, pulling out the chair and sitting, then tugging it close to Isobel. “We are not abominations, but it does not mean we should be playing God. How do we know what could come of healing them? Fine, if you must do something to feel useful, heal our kind. But leave them be.” It was a plea, almost, and it sounded like one.
Isobel was quiet for a long while, taking his words, rolling them over in her head, and trying to find some comfort in them, something she could listen to. Finally, she gave a small nod of her head, leaning in towards him until her forehead landed against his shoulder. “I’m... just not going to use it any longer. It’s... it’s better that way for everyone, isn’t it? To just... stop?” Her words were soft, and by the way her shoulders hitched every so often, she was trying to hold back the tears. “I’ll... just work. And just be quiet from now on. It’s what good girls do. It’s what Estella taught me to do.”
Eli’s stomach roiled, and he felt the sort of regret he thought was impossible for him to feel. His fingers moved to Isobel’s hair and through it, and he sighed heavily. “Iso. Talk to Finnegan, go to your interview, and we’ll find a safe way for you to heal our kind alone, alright?” It was an olive branch, and he hoped she would take it.
She didn’t move for the longest while, and while she wanted to agree with him, the ache in her stomach told a different story. “I’ll... go to my interview,” Isobel murmured as she sat back up, rubbing at her eyes with the heel of her hands. “But... I don’t think I can talk to Ray. And... I don’t think I can heal anyone. Not even... people like us. But... thank you?” She was pulling away quickly, her moves harried and somewhat panicked.
“I should go. I’ve... bothered you too long here. You’ve got things you need to do, I’m sure, so...” She got up to her feet, grabbing her bag and holding it in front of her like a shield, unable to meet his gaze now. “I’m... I’m sorry you’ve got me as a cousin, Eli. I am.”
Eli didn’t stand. He just nodded, secure in the knowledge that he’d bollocksed this up superbly. “Isobel, there is no need to be sorry.” I’m the one that’s sorry. “Good luck on your interview.” He’d have Preston fix it, whatever he’d just done, and he rubbed a wrist as he thought it.
“Thanks.” She didn’t linger, didn’t wait around for anything else to be said, instead taking her exit, though every step out brought her closer to tears. She had an hour until she needed to be at Dorsia, which meant an hour to calm down and pick herself back up. Somehow it would all work out.