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Isobel Brandt \\ Persephone (praxidike) wrote in paxletalelogs, @ 2017-08-29 09:32:00

just call on me, sister, when you need a hand
Who: Alice & Isobel.
What: The girls head off to CatCon! But not everything goes super smoothly when they get home...
Where: CatCon, then the Pax parking lot.
When: Aug. 12.

Isobel took a deep breath as she headed out into the lobby area, greeting Stephan with a wide if hesitant smile. The well-bedecked concierge smiled back, raising a purple manicured hand in greeting; the pages of a magazine slumped to the top of his desk.

"Ms. St. Germaine, it's been some time; I thought you'd disappeared, after everything that had happened."

Isobel shrugged, moving toward the desk and pausing; she glanced back at the elevator, and then dug into her bag for her phone, frowning to see no messages. She hoped Alice would be quick.

"I've just been...busy," she finally answered, keeping her phone in her hand.

"Understandable," Stephan replied, nodding. Before he could reply, the elevator door dinged open, much to Isobel's relief.

Alice stepped out in jeans and a peasant tank top, her red hair tied up into a high ponytail and glasses propped on top of her head. She smiled at Isobel and waved to Stephan. “Hi Stephan! How are you? Did you see the muffins I left at the mail room the other day?” Despite her gruff attitude when confronting the man with Daniel months before, Alice liked Stephan and held no hard feelings toward him and the oddities of the apartment complex.

Stephan leaned forward onto his elbows, his bald head shining somewhat in the cool light of the lobby as he nodded. "I did, Ms. Kennedy, and thank you for them. You spoil me, with all these treats. Goes right to my waist."

"We should be going, shouldn't we, Alice?" Isobel interjected, trying her best to not sound rude and failing spectacularly. Stephan turned wide, surprised eyes in her direction as Isobel stepped forward enough to loop one arm around Alice's, steering the redhead toward the exit. "Bye, Stephan!" He merely raised a hand in goodbye as the two women made their way out the Pax Letale door and out into the semi-warm morning sunshine. Isobel didn't let go of Alice's arm, still steering her toward her car.

"Sorry," she offered, seeming visibly relieved to be outside and in the sunshine. "I don't know what it is, but there's something about him that just creeps me out. It's not... Not the dress or the baldness or whatever, just... I don't know." She shivered, slowing her pace. "Did I act like that before, around him?"

“Uh…” Alice replied, her voice uncertain as she glanced back at the doors of the complex and frowned. “No… not really. You were really nice to him.” It was concerning to Alice and a little embarrassing to have been a part of that interaction, but she found it best to be upfront with Isobel when she asked questions about how she was before she forgot everything. At least on most topics, moments of turning into grain not included.

Trying to push past it, she flashed a smile at her friend and changed the subject. “So, I’ve never gone to a cat event like this before. Have you? If you remember…”

"Nah, I don't think so," Isobel replied, loosening her hold on Alice as they made their way through rows of cars toward Isobel's green Prius. Pressing the buttons on her keybob, the little four door chirped a welcome. "I didn't have any pets growing up. My parents thought they'd be a bad idea, that I'd get hurt or sick or something. It was...pretty boring." Faintly, she wondered how she'd reacted to getting Hanni; if she'd been the one to purchase the dog out of a childhood desire, or if Obed had surprised her. She pushed away from the thoughts, returning to a nicer path of conversation. "But I've heard a lot of good things about this place," Isobel offered with a smile as she slid into her seat. The door closed neatly behind her, and she started about turning the car on.

"Really sounds like anything anyone could ever want, related to cats. Did you want a cat?" The engine made a quiet roar.

Alice made a small smile. “I think a pet would be nice. I was thinking a dog, but my schedule is so all over the place I don’t think it would be fair to the dog,” she admitted as she settled into the passenger seat and put her bag onto the floor between her feet. “But a cat would be nice; they’re low maintenance, right? Someone who I can come home to and all that. I’m not going to lie, I really wish Rafael had chosen to move into the apartment on my floor.” The small smile diminished and she looked at her hands. “So yeah, a cat may be nice.”

Isobel smiled empathetically in Alice's direction. "Yeah, it's hard to be all by yourself, especially just on that floor! Who knows, maybe someone else will move in soon. But until then, maybe we can get you a cat."

She backed the car out of its white-outlined spot, and navigated carefully toward the road. Then they were on their way, changing lanes and taking on ramps that would steer them toward the convention center.

"You know, speaking of Rafe," she started once she was comfortably set on the freeway, "I went up to check out his new apartment the other day. It's a really nice improvement; lots bigger, and he's got room for guests. He said he was excited to have one of our dinner parties again up there." She hoped the lure might help ease Alice's anxieties about feeling left behind by their mutual friend, though in truth she was slowly steering the conversation toward a different question.

Alice’s smile was a touch sad, but still a smile all the same. “Dinner parties would be nice. We’ve sort of eased up on those, haven’t we? With all that’s been going on and what not…” Her gaze drifted out the car window and she let out a small sigh, completely oblivious to the fact that Isobel was angling for a different topic of conversation. “I wonder if I should get a kitten or an older cat. Kittens are full of energy but older cats have their own problems, right?”

"I wish I could say, I don't know much about cats," Isobel replied, her eyes carefully on the road. "I can't even remember what it was like with Hanni. I bet there'll be someone there who can tell you all about it, you know? And I read that they have adoptions, so I'm sure you'll have a ton to pick from. Find just the right cat." The conversation lulled for a moment, Isobel chewing on her bottom lip before she finally pushed herself to just ask.

"You know, Rafe told me... well, he didn't tell tell me, he just mentioned it, but I was telling him that something strange had happened to me, and he said that it had... well, something like it had happened to you, too." She glanced up into the rearview, and then over to Alice in the passenger seat, before quickly pulling her gaze toward the road.

Alice’s eyes widened and she glanced at Isobel, just missing her gaze as it shifted back to the road. Her mouth hung open and she blinked, surprised that Isobel had any inkling of things happening. But there had been so many things… it honestly could be anything, couldn’t it? Despite that, Alice had a feeling she knew what strange thing Isobel was referencing. Still, she played coy in an attempt to not scare away her friend. She had been through enough, she didn’t have to also be given crazy stories about women made out of grass.

“Ah… yeah, some weird things have happened to me. Um… what… what weird things happened to you? If you don’t mind telling me. I promise I won’t tell anyone, if that’ll help,” Alice replied, her fingers finding a torn piece in her jeans and starting to worry at the string.

"Hah, I don't know who'd believe you if you did," Isobel replied, a wide smile flashing over her face. "Um, I was visiting Obed, trying... Seeing if he could answer questions and help me remember things, and I guess... I changed." Her explanation, stuttering as it was, was vague. "Remember how you told me that I had dreams about Persephone, the Greek goddess? I guess... I guess I became her." She glanced sidelong at Alice again. "I was talking to Obed one minute, and the next... I lost time, because I was standing across the room from him, and the next I was right next to him." She left out the details that he'd been on his knees in front of her. "I hurt him. Not badly," she quickly added, keeping her attention fixed on the road. "But... Did that, did something like that happen to you?"

Alice’s eyes were on Isobel and wide with surprise. After a moment passed, she let out a sigh and allowed her shoulders to slump. “Yeah, something like that did happen,” she admitted. “I’m sorry, Isobel. I wanted to tell you but it was scary and I didn’t want to scare you. You have so much going on and, I won’t lie, everything has been so odd but with your memory loss I figured you’d think I was insane and stop trusting me.”

She frowned, looking guilty at her friend as she tuck a strand of red hair behind her ear. “But yeah… it was similar. Except for me it was Uke Mochi, not Persephone, and I remember half of it…”

Isobel glanced twice at Alice, her hands carefully on the ten and two of the steering wheel. "You remembered some of it? Do you... Can you tell me?" She wasn't completely certain that Alice's experiences would necessarily help with her own, but it didn't seem to hurt in trying. That was, as long as Alice felt comfortable talking about it.

"If you don't, we don't have to talk about it, though," she added, glancing over a third time; the car wobbled slightly, but remained in its lane.

Alice shook her head and tried to provide a reassuring smile. “I just didn’t want to scare you is all. But yeah… I remember it, but only part of it, the part where I was still me, I guess.” She sighed at went to her hair, fidgeting with it as she recalled the still too familiar memory. “I had a nightmare, Rafael was still staying with me at the time and he had a nightmare too. I woke up, he was awake, we were talking and suddenly I… I started to change.”

She held out her pale hand, extending her fingers that were still human and hadn’t altered from that state since that night. “My fingers changed, my hair too, my entire body started to become just like Uke Mochi’s. She’s all made of grass and wheat and other grains; she doesn’t have a body anymore and I was literally becoming her. And I saw it, felt it, and it was so scary and then the next thing I knew I was waking up in my bed.”

She blinked, dropping her hand to her lap and looked out the window in a poor attempt to cover any of her feelings. She thought of what she woke up to, the state that Rafael was in, but she couldn’t go telling Isobel that. So she moved on. “Rafael said that after my body became like Uke Mochi’s, you know the part I remember, it was sort of like I became possessed. Uke Mochi was there, in my body, and I just… vanished. But I guess she was nice enough and she turned me back into myself. Then she left and my body sort of collapsed. Rafael put me to bed and that’s how I woke up there. It wasn’t for very long if I understand correctly and there weren’t any lasting effects but… I don’t know, the start of it all was terrifying. I thought I was going to lose myself but I need to get it through my head, Uke Mochi isn’t like that, she wouldn’t hurt me.”

Her rambling tidal wave of words came to a halt and Alice clamped her mouth closed as she tried to brush away the memories of that night and all that had occurred of both Uke Mochi and Rafael’s dependency.

"Wow, I'm so sorry, Alice." Isobel's worried expression said more than her words could convey, and she loosed a hand from the steering wheel to reach over and grasp Alice's in as comforting of a gesture as she could offer in that moment. "That sounds terrifying. I... I just can't remember, which, I mean, by now it's kind of old hat, which is weird and dumb to say, but actually being aware that you're changing..."

She squeezed Alice's hand once more, a frown playing around her mouth. Then she brought her grasp back to the wheel, though the car had not moved at all from its assigned place. "I'm glad Rafe was with you. And you know, you can always come stay with me, if you feel uncomfortable in your apartment. I know mine's not as big as yours, but... Even with other people on the floor, it definitely feels kind of empty, all the time." She realized she missed Hanni, or at least the small shred of presence he seemed to offer. Even that wasn't true; the dog often seemed bigger than his tiny stature, and it wasn't a personality thing. Isobel shook her head.

"Well, at least for today we can focus on cats, right? We'll find you a good roommate who'll keep you company."

Alice smiled and nodded. “Yes! Maybe they’ll have some cat guides too… and I guess other things that we’d need, right? I’ll have to get a litter box and food… I can probably do that later and at least give the cat a bowl of water while I run out.” Her smile continued, becoming all the more genuine as they moved away from the topic of Uke Mochi. “Hopefully we’ll find one that likes me.”

"Oh, I sincerely doubt that will be hard," Isobel replied, glancing in the rearview as she went to change lanes.

---

The convention was long, loud, and huge, but overall for the two friends, a complete success. Alice had adopted a gray Scottish fold kitten, which was now carefully balanced in a cat carrier on the redhead's lap during the long drive home. For the first hour or so, they'd chit-chatted about the various adorable animals they'd seen (fat kittens, oddly shaped cats, and the wide variety of owners that had also come into play) before finally sputtering out and opting for silence supplemented by radio chatter and music. It wasn't an awkward silence; moreso, a comfortable one in which they both coexisted, leaving them each satisfied with the day's outcome.

They made a short pit stop at a Panera Bread for dinner (Alice anxiously leaving her newfound pet in the car with many promises to be right back) before finally pulling into the Pax Letale parking lot. Isobel let out an unconscious sigh as she pulled into her assigned parking spot and killed the engine.

"OK, I'll grab the other stuff; you just handle Molly." She glanced down at the grate covering the cat's face, gray-blue eyes staring impatiently and unhappily up at her as Isobel reached for the door handle. The exterior of the apartment complex was dark, dotted with street lamps that left hazy pools of yellow throughout the parking lot. They were near such one, which, between it and the car's own lights, should have been enough to see them through their various chores and to the apartment complex's front door. Isobel popped her own exit open and went to start figuring out how to package what they'd bought into as few carryable parcels as possible.

“Come on, Molly,” Alice said cheerfully, having kept an ongoing chat with the young kitten as she opened the door and tried to get out of the car with minimal jostling of the kitten. She only had known the little cat for a few hours but she was already completely in love with the tiny creature. Complete with the litter box, litter, food, cute bowls, toys, and a small pink collar with a little pink flower on it, Molly had a set life ahead of her at the apartment complex as Alice’s new roommate. “Aunt Isobel is going to help us get all set up and ready to go and then you can spend the rest of the evening investigating the apartment.” She pressed the edge of the carrier to her hip as she closed the car door and smiled at Isobel.

“I don’t want to keep you though,” She called to Isobel over the car. “I’ve taken up enough of your time today, so if you need to leave as soon as we get to my apartment I understand.”

"Oh, Alice, it's fine," Isobel quietly admonished the other woman, smiling and shaking her head as she pulled one bag strap over a shoulder. "I don't have much else to do, since Obed has Hanni. I'd rather help you and not go home to an empty apartment just yet." Bent over with half of her form inside the car, she did not hear nor see the presence approaching them.

Feet scraped the graveled surface of the asphalt as a shadowed figure came to a stop just a stone's throw away from where Alice and Isobel were unpacking the car. Hands shoved into pockets revealed little of whatever threat the figure might be carrying.

"Need some help?"

Alice turned in the direction of the voice, a smile still on her face that immediately faltered upon seeing the newcomer. Going rigid in place, her eyes widened and her breath came quick. “Isobel, we need to get inside now,” she murmured before raising her voice, it quivering all the same. “No thanks, Bryan. We’re good here. Have a good night.” She turned, shooting Isobel a glance, and stepped forward to urge Isobel toward the apartment complex.

Isobel's head nearly hit the roof of the car; she pulled back, putting her hands on the frame as she turned to look toward the source of the voice.

"Bryan?"

"Hey, Izzy." He stepped forward, into a pool of light to reveal himself clad in jeans and a shirt, a jacket pulled over his top. He looked like he hadn't slept in days, with deep, dark bags under both eyes. Bryan eyed Isobel's form, glancing between her and Alice. "Looks like you guys have been busy. Can I get a second?"

Isobel remained where she was, uncertain. Everything everyone had told her about him swam through her mind, but she still couldn't make sense of it. Despite what he'd done to her when they were younger, it was difficult for her to imagine him burning a building down. And yet the near stranger was so far removed from what she remembered about Bryan that plausibility was beginning to take hold.

Reading her hesitancy as fear, Bryan started moving toward them. Isobel moved quickly; she went back to the driver's side, grabbing her purse and pulling out a small vial-shaped object with her finger pressed to the top.

"Stay back," she ordered; her stance was firm, her voice unwavering. Bryan's brows rose, at first in surprise; then in amusement.

"Well lookit the guts on you. Hilarious."

“We’re kind of busy, so Isobel can talk to you later. Maybe, like, leave her a voicemail or something,” Alice spoke up, stepping closer to her friend and gently pressing her elbow into Isobel’s side as she urged Isobel to flee. Molly meowed from within the carrier, sensing the change in emotion from the girls and Alice gripped the carrier tighter.

"Alice, it's OK," Isobel said, keeping the pepper spray in Bryan's direction. "Just...keep getting Molly's things." She took a few steps away from the redhead, toward the man threatening them. Bryan merely gave a soft snort, clearly disbelieving what he was seeing.

"Did you do it?"

The grin still wide on his face, Bryan's brows pulled together in confusion across his forehead. "Do what, Izzy? I never did anything that you didn't deserve."

Isobel took a breath, letting it out slowly. Her arm started to dip down.

"I don't want to deal with this right now, Bryan. We can talk--"

Bryan surged forward, grabbing Isobel's wrist. He bent it back, trying to get her to let go of the pepper spray. "No, we can talk now." Whatever else he meant to say was stopped as Isobel pressed the tab on her pepper spray, letting it loose full force directly into his face. Isobel fell back a step or two, unnerved but unharmed. She was panting, but her gaze never wavered away from Bryan's form, with his hands clapped over his face as he tried to undo the damage.

"You need to leave, Bryan. Now. Before I call the police."

“Come on, let’s go,” Alice murmured, appearing beside Isobel once more with Molly’s carrier in her arms and bags of odds and ends stacked on top of it. “I’m not leaving you out here by yourself,” she quickly added, knowing that Isobel would just urge her on, all the while keeping her eyes on Bryan, still not trusting him despite that he had been maced.

"You fucking bitch," Bryan hissed, bowed over and trying to make some sense of his eyes. Isobel kept her pepper spray raised, but nodded at Alice; she maneuvered around to close the driver's side door again, the passenger door behind it following suit, before she dug into her pocket for her keys.

"Just...just head toward the door," Isobel said, walking backward a few paces before finally turning and shoving both the spray and her keys into the purse hanging around her middle. She looked to Alice, and gently took a few bags from her as they made a quick exit (Bryan's pain still audible in the background, though it faded, telling them that he was not in pursuit) toward the welcoming front doors of Pax.

Isobel moved in front of Alice, holding open the doors so the other woman could step inside quickly. Once she was in the threshold, then inside the lobby, she followed, pulling the door shut behind her. She paused, staring out through the glass toward the parking lot. Her eyes searched for any potential threat, any shadow that might have been the man who had apparently and effectively ruined her life—so caught up was she that she didn't hear another person enter the fray.

"Everything all right?" Isobel jumped at the sound of Stephan's voice, his face immediately filling her vision as she spun around, slapping a hand to her chest. "A little jumpy, aren't we?"

Alice looked at Stephan for a moment before offering a brilliant smile. “We listened to one of those creepy podcasts on the way home, you know those ones don’t you? It just really freaked us out. Also, Stephan, meet Molly!” Alice held up the carrier and Molly made a tiny meow, her gray-blue eyes peeking from the darkness inside the carrier. Alice glanced to Isobel then back at Stephan, the smile still on her face but a tiny bit strained.

Stephan glanced between the brunette and the redhead, clearly not wholly bought by Alice's performance but willing to play along. He cooed, carefully sticking a finger in between the cage door of Molly's holding cell, and pulling it back out when the cat seemed to strike.

"Are you sure everything's all right?" He repeated, his eyes sliding from Alice to Isobel, weighing the other woman's reaction.

But Isobel took Alice's response as her cue, and nodded, smiling. Somehow, inside the light of the Pax lobby, she felt safer, despite the oddities that had been raining down on everyone within.

"It was just a long drive home. We went to CatCon, which, in hindsight, we probably could've just gotten Alice a cat from the local shelter. But it was fun."

Stephan gave a long, slow nod, looking back at Alice and the cat. "Well, it's adorable. I'll leave you two to getting it upstairs and cared for, hm? Oh, what brand of food are you planning on giving her? I've been trying to find something that will play nicer with Ms. Scissorhands' stomach. She's had a long bout with vomiting as of late..." As though it could hear it was being discussed, a long, high-pitched hiss emerged from the concierge desk, unhappy about the choice of topic.

“Oh, it’s just kitten food for now,” Alice said with a blush as she lowered the carrier. “But if I see anything for pesky cat bellies, I’ll definitely let you know! I’m new to this whole cat business.” She smiled more genuinely as she and Isobel began moving towards the elevators. “Have a good night, Stephan!”

Isobel fell into step quickly alongside Alice, glad for her friend's quick exit.

"Do you mind if I follow you up?"

“I was going to demand you come to my apartment even if you didn’t ask,” Alice said with a weak smile, leaning slightly to brush Isobel with her shoulder. As the elevator doors swished open, Alice let out a long sigh. “Maybe you can even spend the night…”

"I am completely down for that," Isobel agreed, stepping into the car beside her friend. She adjusted a bag over one shoulder, her eyes watching the front doors even as the elevator doors closed around them. Swallowing, she let the events of the evening subside, instead turning her attention to Alice and Molly, and hopefully other memories that would overcome the brief scare they'd experienced in the parking lot.