Obed Brandt | Hades (obedear) wrote in paxletalelogs, @ 2017-06-02 15:28:00 |
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Entry tags: | hades, persephone |
the worst part of holding memories is not the pain
Who: Isobel & Obed.
What: A memory-erased Isobel returns Hanni to his owner.
Where: Pax Letale, 104 and then D3.
When: Immediately following this thread.
Isobel woke on a couch inside an apartment that looked familiar, but as much as she tried, she could not place any of it. What was more, she was laying down next to a little black pomeranian dog who looked ecstatic to see her.
"Well hi there," she said, putting out a hesitant hand to brush over its head. The dog took the invitation and doubled it, shoving its head into her palm for a more satisfying pet. A collar with tags jingled around its neck. Grabbing one between her fingers, Isobel inspected the name,
"Hello, Hanni," she said, correcting herself. The address said something about Newport Beach, Los Angeles, Pax Letale. An apartment: D3. Was that where she was now? Rising to a sitting position, she let her gaze sweep over the apartment; a sparse, eclectic collection that looked half secondhand, half new. Pictures hung on the walls and on the refrigerator offered some clues; she recognized herself with people, a redheaded young woman and a tanned man. Another of her with the dog who was now following her around the apartment, held in her arms as she knelt with another woman near two large rottweilers.
It would seem it was her apartment, but why she couldn't remember that fact was another matter entirely. She looked back down to the small pomeranian at her feet, who was now sitting quietly and canting his head at her, just as confused as she.
"I guess we'd better check the hallway, huh?" Without waiting for a reply, Isobel turned and padded toward the apartment's front door. On the exterior side were large numerals -- 105. Hanni darted out around her feet to the hall, sniffing toward 104 and the stretched yellow police tape making an X to prevent entry to that particular unit. Isobel stepped into the hall itself, glancing up and down, but saw no one she could apply her questions toward. Instead, there was only one clue she knew she could follow.
Kneeling, she waved Hanni over to her and bundled him up in her arms in lieu of a leash; then she carefully propped the door to her apartment open (she wasn't sure where the keys were and getting locked out would just compound her problems) and headed for the elevators. D3 proved to be near the top of the building; maybe she was a professional dog walker? And she'd been petsitting for a tenant who lived on a higher floor. It made some modicum of sense as she hit the D key and let the elevator carry her up. Hanni remained calm in her arms, clearly perfectly at peace to be held and petted.
Though she wasn't quite at the top of the building, Isobel still marveled slightly at the quality of the hall upon arrival. There were far fewer doors, implying fewer but more spacious apartments; locating D3, Isobel walked toward the door and paused for a moment, trying to think of what she would say. She had another appointment and had to drop the dog off early? That sounded plausible. Something popping up that was out of her control. That would buy her some time. She knocked, switching Hanni to her other arm as she scritched the fur under his chin while they waited for his owner to answer.
The door opened after a moment, and she was greeted by a man in black wearing an expression that, to a stranger, would have seemed only mildly surprised. To one who knew Obed, it was nothing less than shock.
"Isobel," he said. A minuscule smile curled one corner of his mouth. "And Hanni. It's…" Good to see you seemed so trite, so pointless in light of all that had happened since last he had seen her face to face. His teeth sank into his tongue. After a brief interval to collect himself he started again. "Is everything all right?"
That he knew her name was both unsurprising and yet made her feel at a disadvantage; the simple sight of this man (she'd been expecting a woman, maybe, considering the kind of dog she was holding) threw out a Jackson Pollack painting of feelings in her even as she could not even begin to grasp his name.
"Oh, it's fine," she quickly put out, "just something came up, so I wanted to drop Hanni off a little early, if that's OK? I'm very sorry if that cuts into any of your plans." She moved to hold the dog out to the man she assumed was his owner -- Hanni strained a little toward him, clearly recognizing him, and the man knew the dog's name without seeing the tag. Maybe this would go by quickly enough, and she could set about...whatever she was going to set about.
Obed took Hanni as he was bid. He cupped one hand beneath his small paws, the other around his chest, and pulled him close. His eyes, though, remained on Isobel all the while. The crease in his brow deepened more with each passing second. "Early," he repeated, testing the word on his tongue. "I don't remember… I mean, of course I don't mind you bringing him here, but I hadn't really planned for this." He frowned softly. "Is he not adjusting to the new apartment, or…?"
New apartment? Had she just recently moved in? Isobel fought to keep confusion off of her face.
"No, he's fine, he really is, I just... Some things are pulling my attention away. And I think I'm going to have to put off dog sitting for a little bit until I get them settled. But I'll let you know when I'm available again." It seemed a reasonable enough statement.
"Dog sitting?" Obed turned around, kneeling briefly as he let Hanni down to the floor. The little dog pranced on the hardwood, his nails clicking sharply as he trotted off and away into his domain. When Obed faced her again, sincere concern was clear in every line of his body. "Isobel, are you all right? Would you… would you like to come in? Maybe sit down, for a little while?" He took a single step toward her, lowering his voice. He managed to keep from reaching out to her only by sliding his hands into the pockets of his trousers. "You're starting to scare me a little."
Scare him? How could she be scaring him, when she was the one who couldn't remember anything? She immediately took a step back, surprise at his audacity ringing out clear on her face. She could not for the life of her place this man, nor why he made her feel such a combination of excitement, fear, and sadness.
"Um, no, that's all right... I..." She had no idea what kind of plausible excuse might extricate her from the situation. For a moment, she wondered at what other piece of information she might be able to glean from this encounter, before writing it off completely.
"Is this," she asked, carefully enunciating each word as her brows furrowed, "Is this Pax Letale?"
His heart sank like a stone. Naked worry shone on his face, for once readily apparent to any who might have passed. Hanni padded up behind him, whining softly, having quite clearly felt his master's distress. Small black eyes darted from one of his people to the other.
"It is," Obed answered, his voice as even and calm as he could make it. "We've been here since February. Do… do you not remember?" A shadow crossed his face; his lips thinned, drawing into a frown. "Are you hurt, Isobel?"
Her jaw worked, but no words would emerge. Was she hurt? It would explain why she couldn't remember anything, nothing aside from a dull roar of emotions that appeared with each of the photos she'd viewed in her apartment, and that now were turned up nearly full volume in someone's actual presence. There was certainly something she should know about this man, but what it was lurked at the edge of her mind.
"No, I... I think I'm fine." One hand rose to her head, fingertips brushing at her temples. It was clear she was not fine, as the confusion and disorientation of not know where or who anyone was began to show through. At least this man wasn't taking her to task over it. She decided to press her questions. "Who...are you?"
His lips parted on a small gust of breath. What little color had been in his cheeks faded entirely. "Obed. Obed Brandt. We…" He stopped, clearing his throat. Some cruel part of him insisted what they had been no longer mattered. She would surely no longer care. But she was asking, and the better part of him knew it needed to be said, however difficult it might be for them both. "We were engaged, until recently." Below them, settled close against Obed's leg, Hanni yipped. Obed did not look down, but he tipped his head to indicate the little dog. "He was yours, too."
Nothing in his explanation did anything to relieve her of her confused expression; her brows nearly knotted together.
"All right," she finally said, allowing him his version of the truth. "I don't know if I believe you..." If they had broken up, why was she still living here? Why were they in the same building? Who were the other people on her fridge, and why didn't she remember any of this? She kept picking at the wound, clearly seeing the discomfort on his face and pushing past a strange desire to not cause him pain. "Why did we break up?"
So little in his posture changed -- a slight shadow in his tightly drawn cheeks, a subtle sloping of his shoulders -- and yet he seemed, for a moment, like a man defeated. His voice rasped like sandpaper over the answer he did not want to give. It grew steadily quieter the longer he spoke. "We… rushed things. So you said. Maybe we did. And we lost a--" He bit his tongue. "There was a medical issue. I'm sorry, Isobel. These aren't things you should find out this way." He gestured. "Standing in a hall, with a... a stranger. You need to see a doctor. I can help you find one."
She shook her head. "No, I don't--" She wasn't entirely sure where this sudden aversion to doctors came from, and she raised a hand. "You're right, though, I don't... I shouldn't be asking such personal things. I... I'm going to go. I'm sorry, for interrupting your day." And she was, for some reason than she could properly define buried deep inside her mind where she could not get at it. She looked down at Hanni once more, who whined.
Isobel almost opened her mouth to say something else, but nothing came. Eyes tracked back up to Obed's face, a mix of desire and fear warring in her breast, which eventually made her turn back toward the elevator. She tapped the button eagerly, forcing herself to look ahead and down to prevent herself from glancing back.
He could sense her hesitation, her nearly tangible need to be away from him as quickly as possible. So he lingered in the doorway only a moment, watching her leave him again, and in a wholly new way. Then Hanni placed one small black paw into the corridor, and it seemed to break whatever spell had been cast. Obed leaned down and plucked the little dog from the ground, and held him too tightly as they retreated inside.