Home, sweet home. [O][A]

[Endless Laeretti]

Sometimes the surprises never ceased. When Endless had made the decision to come back to Artavia, for a variety of reasons, he was not expecting this to still be here.

It had been early afternoon. The Crescent boy had been laying about lazily up within the Tree Canopy in The Realm of Beginnings. As he stared up at the inviting, cloudless sky, his mind has begun to wander. His first thoughts were regarding just how much the clouds brought up bad memories. There was the constantly overcast Aarunia sky, where he had been reunited with Tehodis, only to remember now that she hated him. There were the Clouds of Aurcaele, where he had very shortly placed a house, only to have to flee from Pelagia the bitch Xista. Not to mention, that's where he had found out about Tehodis in the first place.

Then there the deeper memories, where he was reminded of clouds of smoke, and choking ash. His heart panged at the thought of it, and he had squeezed his eyes shut in desperation to block out the images that suddenly flew unbidden into his mind. His old house, with all the portraits of smiling parents and siblings, burning up in the wreckage. The screams he could still remember hearing from his family as they were either burned alive or gutted by the hordes of attacking bandits. His mother, desperately shutting him away inside a little metal cubby, hoping to hide him of all people from the attack. The next morning, when he tentatively stepped outside, only to find nothing but ash and charred wood, crumbling walls, and the scent of death. The Laeretti menservants and Maids, all strewn about here and there, some of them armed as they had tried to fight for the family they served.

He had been horrified. And living off of that horror, he wandered the broken halls day in and day out, raiding what was left of the kitchen and eating anything he could to survive. Then the Artavian officials had found him, and brought him into protective custody. He couldn't deal with it, and he ran.

Endless hadn't been sure when exactly the tears had started flowing, but the next thing he knew, he was wiping his eyes with the sleeve of his coat, sitting upright in the trees. And that's when he decided that he finally, at long last, should go back to Artavia. He needed absolute closure.

And that is what brought him here. Following his random whim, he arrived in the Space Nation, catching the first Airship out of Mystara and journeying high above the Setsuwan skies. And before long, he had arrived at the exit dock, quickly paying a nice tip to the Captain and heading off wordlessly. Even after all these years, he still remembered his old district. It was difficult to forget, try as he might, where he had spent those first years of his life.

What he wasn't expecting, however, was for it to be deserted. The air caught in his throat when he had finally turned that last corner into the area known as District 14. All around him, the buildings had been renovated, lights were on, the place looked like new. And yet, despite that, there was no one. Not a soul living here. And it got weirder. As he walked down the futuristic-looking Silver walkways, passing by the buildings, looking on at everything, he could see it up ahead.

His old house. The former Laeretti Manor, where Roark Belus Laeretti and Alexandria Laeretti worked to improve the lives of mankind by developing exciting new advancements in science and engineering. And the place was still in shambles. It looked just the way Endless remembered it - the only thing that had changed was that it had perhaps grown even more dilapidated than before, and there was an obvious lack of dead bodies. Also, he was pretty sure there had never been various bouquets of Star Lillies strewn about out front.

"A....memorial?"[/b[ he asked to no one in particular, staring in shock at his destroyed, burnt up childhood home as he noted the very fresh, lively state of the flowers there. And he wanted to scream. "They had the decency to place pretty flowers here and there, but couldn't even clean the palce up? And what's with the town?! Where IS everyone?!? Is THIS how they intend to honor the memories of my parents, my siblings, my family? After everything they did for Artavia..." his voice got lower and lower as he sunk to his knees before the structure. It was disgraceful.

He had expected the place to be gone. He could have dealt with that. Time waits for no one, and Artavia was always about development, so why should they keep a dilapidated structure around? He was not expecting this. This....mockery. If you were going to do something in remembrance of someone, you were to do it right! This was unacceptable.

Endless turned his now fiery glare upon the area around him. Buildings. And working power lines. "so they could restore everything here, except that? Is that right? Well, why should the Manor be the only thing broken, hmmm? Plenty of people died here that day. Why not give them the same glorious treatment, hmmm?" he muttered to himself, focusing with all his rage as windows shattered to pieces around him. Power lines above him snapped, spewing out electrical life in wild, frantic flails before dying out and falling limply against the poles they were erected against. Fences, and doors were ripped off their hinges as they were sent flying all about the square of District 14, and all around him, as well as in connecting blocks, Endless could see the lights turning out.

Finally getting a hold of himself and what he was doing, he stopped. Abruptly stopped. And he was worried now. He had just cause a blackout to several city blocks. This sort of thing wouldn't be overlooked. Gritting his teeth, he let out a frustrated growl, and turned immediately in the direction of the manor. What did he care? Let these people deal with it. They could stand a few moments of darkness.

Endless stepped beyond the threshold, into the destroyed corpse of a home, welcoming the scent of still-lingering ash, and he sat.

[Yuusuke Aelchr]

Yuusuke frowned, his facial expression the definition of boredom. Because that was just what he was. Bored. And spurred by this boredom, he just got up and left Vieri. Because it was far past time he visited a new place – he’d only been to a few other countries in his life, and those visits were for somewhat of a purpose; in search of a pet, or in search of a small lump of precious metals. But aside from that? He’d been nowhere of stunning memories, and it was becoming dull.

So he just up and left it all. Holding a small chniddly up to a map of Setsuwa and telling her to pick a destination for him, that’s what he had been reduced to. So when she poked her small beak into the blob that was Artavia, his reaction wasn’t one of joy, but he settled with her choice – it would be a pain to get there, but he could deal with it, and besides – he didn’t want to feel the sensation of his feet on the actually-on-the ground. So he had made his way to the Sky Port and meandered around until he caught word of a free ride to the other airborne country.

But what now? He always took pride in his tendency to look ahead, but he never really did well when the path in front of him bifurcated his close future. Literally. He stared dumbly at the fork in the road, hesitant eyes scoping out both possibilities – a very harshly lit, metallic and sharp looking road, or another, very harshly lit, metallic and sharp looking road. Not much of a choice going on there. Yuusuke frowned, pointing to the right one and looking expectantly at Carillon, who he’d somewhere along the road decided was his furry little compass.

A single chime. Right it was. However, sure enough as soon as he stepped foot into the new direction, there came a loud crash and the distant sound of glass shattering and crashing to the ground. Yuusuke recoiled, seriously contemplating turning away at that moment, when the road in front of him lost its eye-burning brightness and an anguished howl came echoing towards him. He froze. Sure, it had nothing to do with him, but what if someone was hurt, and died because of him? He didn’t necessarily always think for others first, but this was something he’d most likely have lingering in the back of his mind for ages unless he went and figured it out when it happened.

And so he continued, hesitant, tentative, feet stepping as lightly as possible as he wandered through the near dark, the only light provided being that of the moon as he proceeded. He waited for his eyes to become more accustomed to the eerie glow of the stars before he saw an extremely decrepit looking house before him, with electrical wires dangling and sparking everywhere around him, his feet stepping on and over what looked like recently broken off portions of the area around him – a small block of the monochromatic shining houses, fences, and such. His eyebrows furrowed towards each other, slowly but surely, trying to see through the odd lighting and into the house in question – what had made that howl, the one that still echoed in his mind, even now? He stepped forward again, eyes scanning in front of him, before carefully placing his furred compass of a pet in his pocket, nearly regretting her choice.

“…hello?” Yuusuke called softly into the space before him, lips pursing in the pause before he spoke again. “Is anyone hurt? He tried to breath through his mouth, because accompanied by the faint metallic scent of the city itself, there was the tang of the electricity from the broken power lines, and the thick smell of a long forgotten fire also floated towards him from that eerie house.

[Endless Laeretti]

Endless hadn't been totally conscious of the sounds of another person. In hindsight, he probably should have been. Artavian officers of the law could be on their way at this very moment to investigate the sudden blackout, and it would have behooved Endless to pay a bit more attention to the tell-tale sounds of that. However, he was zoned out completely, his mind not even dwelling in the present at the moment.

No, his thoughts were roaming the halls, the same halls his eyes were scanning. In one eye, it was like he was seeing the past, while the other viewed the present. Half of his vision was filled with the bright, joyous days, running around the manor with his brother and sisters as they played tag, and the other half saw only the decrepit remains of a long dead house fire. Half of his vision saw the little secret panel in the wall, where he and Lydia would open up and crawl into to hide from their parents when it was time to do chores, because they were the only ones small enough to fit inside. The other half just saw the wall torn to pieces, the little compartment no longer distinguishable from the rest of the broken wall.

It wasn't until he heard a voice that he finally snapped out of it. It was a shy, tentative-sounding voice. Maybe not shy, actually. More like cautious? or just reserved. But they were calling out into the darkness, asking if anyone was there. Asking if someone had been hurt.

'You have no idea...' Endless mumbled quietly to himself, lifting his gaze to peer through the busted walls at whoever was outside. As he lifted his face, the moonlight caught his vision, and he could feel his eyes giving off their tell-tale glow, though the glow was dulled thanks to his current mood and half-lidded state. After a few seconds had passed, he could make out the individual who stood waiting outside for him. A boy. A boy around his age, too.

Endless' eyes softened a bit at the worried expression on the guy's face, probably him wondering just what was going on, or if someone had just died. He didn't look to be Artavian. And if the police showed up with this kid just standing out in the open, he would probably be blamed for what Endless had just done. There were already too many things wrong with Endless as it was. He didn't need this on his conscience too.

Sighing, he slowly stood from his little perch inside his broken little former home, slowly stepping out from the busted doorway, back into clear view of the moon overhead. "Hi..." he tried, sounding at a bit of a loss for words as he stared at the guy. What was he supposed to say? "Um...no one is hurt, since you asked...at least, not physically." he added, turning his gaze downcast again when he realized he might be freaking the boy out. Pale-skinned guy dressed in black with glowing eyes, just stepping out from a ruined house? Seemed pretty creepy to him.

"Um, look. I sort of...made a mess here. Some police officers are probably going to be along to investigate before long. We should probably get out of here. You know, unless you want to be taken before the Dictator..." he explained, trying to sound calm. Might as well just tell it like it is, right? Better yet, he could explain things later. Every second that passed, the investigation could be getting closer. Again, Endless didn't want to get this random passerby caught up in the situation needlessly, especially when this whole thing was because he went overboard with some pent up frustration (frustration that probably could have been so much less severe if he had just faced his issues years earlier).

So he did the only logical thing. 'Come on. Let's get out of here." he stated, his voice straight with a sudden decision, as if to say "I have Spoken." And with that, he stepped forward, up to the probably-confused elven boy (he was able to tell at this point that he must have been some kind of elf race), and grabbed a hold of his left hand, clasping it in his right securely, though not too tightly, and began to drag him off immediately. "If I remember the city right, we can take these Alleyways as a shortcut through the block." he explained absently, pulling the guy behind him dutifully through the alleys he still seemed to remember like yesterday - after all, no mater what he did, the memory of his many escapes from the Manor, as well as escapes from Artavia in general, were still fresh in his mind. Oddly enough, he found himself now thanking his lucky stars that they hadn't changed things too much. The alleys, barring a few new things here and there, were more or less the same. At this rate, there was no way they would be found.

He didn't stop until they'd reached a small little dead-end alleyway, with a little wall-nook, where he calmly sat himself and the other boy down, finally releasing his grip on his hand. Warm hand...

"I imagine you probably want an explanation..." he began, turning to look at his unwilling travel companion. And whoa. Endless really had to question the ability of his attention span sometimes, because there was no way he could have been THAT zoned out, could he? He had to be. Because it seemed that only now was he really getting an actual look at the elf-kin, and he was speechless for a moment. He's so....pretty... he found himself thinking. He was quite thankful that this alleyway was out of range of the moonlight - the last thing he needed was to be caught staring, and rather openly at that.

How did I notice his race, but not his...face? he asked himself, in disbelief. He suddenly found himself thinking of the way he had reacted when he first laid eyes on Jance. Jance who was away at the moment. Jance who had said he was off repaying some favor to someone. Jance who said he's be back soon, and would be back...only to find Endless wasn't where he had left him, because Endless had decided on a whim to go to Artavia without saying a word.

And yet, now Jance seemed like the farthest thing from his mind suddenly...he was too far entranced by the strange beauty of this young man. He looked so natural, and yet also like he could just slip away at a moment's notice. Endless recalled as well how light he had felt as they paced the alleys.

Gulping, he took a quick breath, hoping it hadn't been noticed. "Hi. I'm Endless."

[Yuusuke Aelchr]

It could have been expected, of course. As soon as Yuusuke had called out, being completely justified in his timidity, he immediately regretted it. Sure, it was kind of a stupid thought and most likely improbable, but the current atmosphere wasn’t helping him convince himself that some mass murderer hadn’t been the cause of all of this and wouldn’t jump and stab him in the heart when he showed up. Sure, Yuusuke didn’t have very much to live for at the moment, but he didn’t want to die yet. He wasn’t even 150 years old yet. So he held himself ready – he could always run, right? He was a hell of a lot more agile than others that he’d met, he could give himself that.

His list of “what-could-be-going-on-here”s only got more screwed up when two glowing eyes [or well, he assumed they were eyes] showed up out of the dim household. But that weird thing, where the light reflects off of the back of animals’ and peoples’ eyes…wasn’t that when they were faced with a bright light or a flash? Not just…what little lighting there was here? Yuusuke’s eyebrows narrowed in, confusion hitting him just as hard and illogically as a brick wall swinging out and hitting him in the head.

Because what emerged from the broken wall of the building was a boy. A boy with glowing eyes and a tired or sad expression on his moon lit face. In response to the question that Yuusuke had asked just recently – even though it felt like ages already – he mentioned nobody had been hurt; “Not physically”, he’d said? Did that mean there was like, mental issues going on? He grimaced a bit. But the boy continued, trying to explain what was going on apparently, but only making it worse. He caused this? Was that even possible? He said he’d made a mess, but…this looked like a little more than just a mess.

Especially if it could become something involving police and dictators. And of course, as Yuusuke was mulling all of it over, he ran out of time. Because next thing he knew he was dragged by a tight grip on his hand through the alleys of Artavia. The guy said he knew where he was going. Which Yuusuke found himself highly doubting – the way he said it, it was like he had been gone for more than just a few days. Yuusuke found himself getting lost even in the day time in Vieri, where he’d lived for pretty much the entirely of his life. Yet he found himself speechless. What was there to say? ‘Oh hey, how’d you do that?’ or ‘Let go of me, I’ll deal with the police, no problem. Also, your eyes are bright.’

Yeah, no. He found neither of the choices very tempting. So he just blinked in confusion, letting himself be dragged through the dark maze of Artavia. He stumbled and staggered behind the other boy, not being allowed a very good view of the dark ground before his feet hit, hand being clasped in a firm hold. When they finally came to a halt, his hand was released and he immediately took it in his other – it felt kind of cold without the other’s skin in contact with it, even though their hand had been a little colder, and there was an odd tingling left in the hand itself…he shrugged it off as loss of circulation from the grip as he was sat down next to the boy.

Well, he acted like he knew where he was. If only he’d been in need of a tour guide, not an explanation. He’d been offered one a few moments ago before there was a lapse of silence. He waited a little longer, because it seemed as though he’d been about to continue, and was about to finally speak up before the boy spoke again, offering a simple greeting and what Yuusuke assumed was his name. Because “I’m Endless” didn’t seem like it would make much sense in any other context or way. So…was that supposed to be this explanation he’d mentioned?

“Uhm…hey.” Yuusuke tried to shift away from the other boy if possible – it’s not that he was scared of the boy, or that he smelled bad or anything [on the contrary, he actually smelled pretty nice, like a sweet mint], but he just wasn’t sure about any intentions going on. They seemed nice enough, because he said he’d been saving him from trouble, but hadn’t he just blown up a bunch of stuff? Where was the logic in that? He also had the faint impression of eyes on him from a very close proximity, which instinctively made him feel a bit like a piece of meat.

“…but yeah, an explanation might be helpful.” He never gave his name in response [was that rude?], but he also didn’t see the point.

Carillon pressed her head into the fabric of Yuusuke’s pocket, sensing his tension and wriggling around in the small area and letting out a soft chime until he gently opened the small pouch of a pocket and cupped her in his hand. She chimed again, louder this time, to acknowledge the stress of the new stranger that Yuusuke had stumbled upon, as if saying “It’s alright, I’m here now,” and “Nice to meet you.”

[Endless Laeretti]

Endless, stressed and heart-torn as he was, couldn't help but smile when the small little animal in the other boy's pocket chimed. Granted, it seemed a little strange that he was pulling out this random creature, seemingly paying no more attention to Endless after having just asked for an explanation. Although, Endless supposed it could be counted as just as weird to other people when he produced Munchy from a pocket, talking to him in full-length conversations.

Endless was also mildly bummed that this new, pretty guy seemed to have no intention of talking to him in any manner that could be deemed friendly. Sure, he couldn't BLAME him - they had just met, Endless probably seemed like a creepy guy given the circumstances, and then there was the random "let's run before police get here thing". And then here Endless was, just looking at this complete stranger like he was the most wonderful thing since sliced bread. As if he had never seen a cute guy before. Jeez, maybe Kiku was starting to rub off on him, if he already had this desire to get with a guy he had just met... well, Kiku was like that with girls, but still.

Wasn't he supposed to be doing something? Right, the explanation thing. He was supposed to be explaining why this going on and such. Where did this random good mood come from? It couldn't have just been from briefly meeting this stranger.

"That's a cute... whatever that is." he commented by way of ice-breaker, gesturing at the little animal. "So um, right. You want an explanation. Well, to put it simply... I got a little angry over there. Or...I dunno if you can really call it angry. It was SOME thing. But it was sort of this personal thing... I don't think you need to know exactly what about. It'd be a long story, and I don't think I'm willing to talk about it." he said, his voice already getting just a tad choked up from thinking about it again. He cleared his throat. "Well, long story short, I decided that things were all kinds of messed up over there... so I took my anger out on that block. Don't worry, no one was living there or anything... it was completely deserted, actually. But I sort of knocked out the power for a few city blocks in the process, and while it's an easily fixed problem, Artavian police would be really upset about it if they found us there when they came to investigate, and I didn't want you to get caught up in all that when you had just happened to wander along. It would have weighed very badly on my coscience... so I guess, here we are." he finished, feeling rather lame with himself as he stared down at his feet, suddenly not wanting to look at the boy next to him.

He very well could have gotten them both into very serious trouble for his rash actions. He needed to be more careful; hadn't even considered that someone completely unrelated would get involved.

[Yuusuke Aelchr]

Ah…well look, Carillon made me look like an idiot. Yuusuke’s mouth twitched at the corners when the little Chniddly blinked up innocently at the two boys when Endless mentioned her before going into his explanation. Probably thinks I’m some weird socially awkward person who diverts attention from themselves with small pocket animals…

Yuusuke blinked and tried to refocus on what the boy was speaking about, seeing as the explanation was for him in the first place. But…really, this guy. Seemed mentally unstable, if you asked him. Didn’t even know if he was angry or not. He watched him with somewhat wary jade eyes, still trying to keep enough distance between them in case he got…“SOME thing” again. But at least, the first time, there was a reason, right? Because he’d said things were messed up in the town, and it wasn’t like it was intended to hurt people…but still, Yuusuke was in a small dead end in a small alley in a small portion of Artavia – not really the best place to be cornered in with a stranger.

“So…okay. Thanks for getting me out of there, I guess.” He sighed, not particularly afraid as he should have been, knowing that the kid had indeed just blown up the power in part of such a high tech area of Setsuwa. But now what? He knew why he was there in the little niche at long last, but couldn’t for the life of him figure out why he was still there. Almost a minute of an awkward silence passed, yet Yuusuke’s initial instinct of “Alright, time to get up and go now, bye, buddy,” wasn’t kicking in.

He didn’t feel the strong need to disassociate himself with the guy so soon. So he asked the question. “But now what?” It was legitimate, a good thing to ask. Because Endless wasn’t really in the best position, or so it seemed, unless no one in Setsuwa actually knew about him odd blow up power or whatever thing he had going on. Which would be mighty convenient for him, now wouldn’t it?

“I mean…I’m just visiting here, so if I should leave…” The Venesian boy still didn’t feel the intense pull to leave like he had hoped, but he still tried to keep the regret out of his voice as he mentioned the option of him leaving – because why the hell should that tone be in there? He’d only just met the kid, there wasn’t a reason for him to regret leaving.

…oh. Well maybe there was. Yuusuke blinked, remembering again the tingling feeling left by the boy’s hand on his when he let him go. Maybe that was confusing him. Maybe that was the reason why Yuusuke felt the urge to linger and find something out, maybe that was the something.

Great. Bubbling curiosity, that’s just what I need. “Hey uh…” Yuusuke grimaced and reached out his hand a few inches. “You’ve got something on your cheek,” he lied, brushing his fingers swiftly across the boy’s pale skin before he had the chance to “do it himself.” “Sorry.”

But there it was, that odd tingly feeling in his hands again. Just from a swift second of contact, even. Question was – what the hell did it mean? Maybe the kid had electricy powers, and that’s how he blew up a street section, and there was a current running through his veins? That seemed plausible. But didn’t currents hurt? Yuusuke frowned in thought. He could ask, but what if it wasn’t that? How awkward would that be, blurting out a blunt, “OH HEY, YOU MAKE ME TINGLE. KNOW WHY?”

No thanks.