we'll keep on falling down in the same way

[obediences]

WHO: The Hargreeves + Guests
WHERE: Various Cities
WHEN: Month of October
WHAT: Monthly catch-all for everything that isn't the birthday party.
WARNINGS: Obligatory CW for: drugs, alcohol, mentions of death and child abuse.

Comments

Oct 2nd { Home, keep hold of my heart, as I try to run away

[numberthree]

Allison hasn't slept.

She was tired in her bones, but she hadn't slept all night. She'd had longer days than this on location, on sets, in the first years of raising Claire, but none of them felt like this. This numb. This burning. (The closest might have been the night they arrived here. When she finally let herself face that at least-for-now Claire was dead.)

She'd stayed with Vanya. She'd stayed all night, in Aegis, refused to move, refused to even move from where Vanya would be able to see her except when she had to leave to talk to people about how this would go, what the repercussions were, what they were planning now.

Until about an hour ago, when she left to get them better than breakroom coffee.

Which had turned into picking up an assortment of breakfast options, because God knew what might be offered, or available? Or who knows. She got breakfast sandwiches, coffee (with sugar for Vanya, even, the way she liked it), and a small bag of pastries (because, the irony of ironies, there were bamboloni's there next to the muffins and croissants). She paid for everything, still updating Luther across the Mental Network, for the most recent time, and headed back.

Breakfast's here

Allison sent once she made it back to where Vanya was being kept for now.

[gigue]

There is a small part of her that doesn't expect Allison to come back. Maybe a bit more than small: Vanya struggles too much with trust, finds it too weighty to cope with. Every time the thought rises in her head, insidious and unkillable, she thinks of Allison smiling at her concert. Coming after her, outside the house. And every time she does, it makes her want to cry.

She's too exhausted for it, mostly, but her eyes still leak here and there, dampening her shirt or her pillow, depending on where she's decided to curl up.

The power dampener is sophisticated, but it still feels like a weight around her neck. What would it have been like, she wonders, if she grew up wearing something like this? Knowing why she wore it? It's a thought exercise she can't follow for long: it keeps threatening to ignite the rage that has been cooling in her belly since last night.

The text pops up in her vision before Vanya realizes she hears someone coming; she blinks a few times, looking up at her sister - who hasn't slept any more than Vanya has, who still looks like a model fresh from a good night's sleep, who still seems to set a standard that V can't even imagine attaining. She doesn't smile, can't quite bring herself to that. But she moves toward the bars of the cell, where a chair has already been dragged, to settle in it on one knee.

"You didn't have to." She feels silly pointing it out: Allison didn't have to do any of this, but here she is anyway, doing it.

{An experiment in exhaustion » October 2nd » Pour Decisions, De Chima » Derek Hale

[deadlycurves]

It's somewhere mid-evening, just before dusk takes over the world as Diego and Derek leave the woods to head back into the city proper. Diego is exhausted, far further than he knows he should be after a simple sparring session. Logically, he knows Derek has the kind of raw strength that, for comparison's sake in his own head is probably the most on par to Luther than just about anyone else he's ever met, but still. This is beyond even that, somehow. "I swear that's not my A-Game, man." He says, as they break through the trees and finally get concrete under their feet again instead of leaves. "I don't know what's wrong with me." he says, running a hand across the back of his neck. Maybe it shouldn't be a surprise, considering his family's.... everything right now, that he would be distracted, and miss easy cues. But it doesn't stop him from feeling awful about it, hearing an all-too familiar voice ring in his head-- "Pathetic." "Useless." "Such a disappointment, Number Two." He hates how hard it is to ever escape his raising, no matter how quickly, how fast, or how far he'd run from it all.

[duelo]

The more time he spends talking to his new friend, the more Derek is finding in common with him. It's half-shocking that they aren't actually related. The way they think of things, the way they deal with things; it's all the same.

Diego treats family issues like problems that he alone needs to solve and Derek can tell, not just from the immediate text back in agreement to come out and fight out his feelings, but from the way he'd been moving — slower and less aggressive than Derek had anticipated — and the way he'd hit — only managing to leave marks that disappeared faster than they could finish blooming — and the way he smelled — defeated — that Diego's heart isn't in it or else maybe he's just too drained.

Derek brings up exactly none of these things.

On the way back to the city, Derek looks over and nods a little. "I could tell," he admits. "You smelled frustrated," he adds, because it's not like they've ever sparred before and Derek had no frame of reference for Diego's abilities in it beyond maybe projecting Allison's onto her brother.

Seeing the exhaustion is different when it's not manifesting in less harsh hits and slower movements. It's sad when it manifests as slumped shoulders and distracted body language. "I wasn't really bringing mine, either," he confesses, shrugging. "I think we're both just too tired. My baby sister could've kicked both of our asses at the same time one-handed just then, so it's not just you."

To Diego, Derek imagines that he feels wound tight with worry and helplessness and just general upset. He wants to help his friends and he doesn't know how. He doesn't know how to help Vanya feel in control of herself enough to kick away the uncertainty and anxiety that weighs her down. He doesn't know how to help Diego stop beating himself up for anything he can think of. He doesn't know how to help Stiles solve the puzzle that is his sexuality. Derek can't help any of them. It's a shitty feeling and he's been marinating in it for days, now; ever since the phone call wherein Vanya invited him to her birthday party only to get upset with him and hang up on him before the end of the call. He's probably reeking of it, actually, so thankfully Diego can't smell it, even though he can feel it.

{Battered & bruised, the undertow is so strong » Oct 2-10 » Various » Family/Close CR only

[deadlycurves]

Diego has spent a lot of the last week at home. Most of it, in fact. He'd called out of work for the week, citing a family emergency as the reason and it really wasn't a lie. There was a lot that needed to be done. To the house. Among the siblings. And everywhere in-between. But other than a few sparse moments the day after, Diego spends almost all of the next two days alone and isolated in his room. He is run so ragged from the overload with his powers that it's hard to focus or do a lot those first few days, especially. He shouldn't have even had the sparring session with Derek, but he'd only realized it after the fact and he had never fully admitted it, even then. He does eventually talk to Vanya that first night, at least. He isn't sure how well he could say it went, but... it happened, at least. And he thinks he'll go visit her at some point in the week, too. If she wants him there, at least. Those first few days are certainly the worst, and he'd swear Thursday was the worst if he had to choose. Like he was still running on shock and adrenaline the day immediately after and it all decided to catch up with him at once the day after. Then, he can mostly be found in his room, dozing half-asleep at best or completely gone from consciousness at worst. The rest of the week, he's less listless, more likely to be found around the communal parts of the house during the day. He goes to Mautria Falls and visits Vanya toward the middle of the week and it goes about as well as he might have expected it could have. Toward the end of the week, he might be seen out around Nonah a little-- jogging at a park half the city away from the house (because the one closest to it had been hit by the damage during the party), idly picking up a few groceries for the house (it's so empty, because no one's been for nearly a week now), pricing supplies they would need to fix the damage to the house at a hardware store, or other small errands that mostly just give him something to do. He will probably be pretty guarded and tetchy if he's approached while he's out and about-- he's just trying to do some menial tasks for the house and go home, people! He will not be found at his job at the mall in Jeopardy all week, or in any other city for anything else during that time, either.

[the_horror]

he had gone out to check what he needed for his room. Things he would need for moving in. maybe he could figure out how to fix the hole in the wall too, or at least help patch that up. Things had got real bad, and he wasn't sure how many of his siblings had heard he was moving in yet. Allison knew, of course, but other things might have... well, other things blew up that night.

And he still didn't know how to deal with any of it. He knows they're all mad at Klaus, but it's KLAUS. Ben has to try to keep an eye on him as well now that he was out of the hospital. Ben was worried that he'd go back to doing hard drugs now and he couldn't let that happen. Moving in might be his best move.

Driving through Nonah he was headed to the store to pick up some food, look for some paint and get some plastic bags to pack with. Only as he was waiting at a light he saw a figure he knew pretty well. As son as the light changed he rolled up slowly, reaching over to crank the window down and call out.

"Hey, stranger. Need a lift?"

[gigue]

The cell in Aegis is comfortable enough. She's aware that they could treat her a lot less kindly - they could treat her like a terrorist, they could question her, they could give her water and bread. They could act like all those TV prisons she's vaguely aware of; the last time she really watched TV was years ago, mostly in college. But that's not what it's like. It's quiet, and not overly terrible. There's not much privacy, but at least her company is mostly known. There's some talk of what might come next - the government getting involved, at least to some extent. She's not really surprised: you don't level a square city block and get off scotfree because people pity you.

And god, does she hate the idea of other peoples' pity. Vanya pities herself enough as it is, any more forces her to acknowledge that and she'd rather not.

When Diego comes she's laying on her bed, head hanging off its foot, staring at the ceiling and the far wall. She's been that way for a few seconds now, and she can feel the blood starting to shift to her head. Once she hears him coming, though, she jerks her head up to stare. She shouldn't be surprised, but here she is, watching him like he's the last person she expected to see.

Well. Maybe the second-to-last.

Oct 9th } Klaus and Ben - Jeopardy

[the_horror]

Ben had been packing slowly. He didn't have much but he had enough that a few boxes were needed, and it would take a few trips to get everything furniture wise over to his room in the house.

Izzy and Star played in a box on the bed, with a few books inside. Star, inside the box, and Izzy fishing around it, popping up to dart at Star. Star, slapping at Izzy, playfully.

Ben had gone down to let Klaus in and was just headed back to his room. "I'm almost finished packing. the bed stays here. It's not mine. And the desk and things like that stay. So... I'm mostly packed."

But not fully. the bed was still cozy nest like a the moment, no pillows put away yet. Just a single box on it for the kids to play in. "Still have to put my computer stuff up, but that can wait till friday night."

[hellogoodhigh]

There's a lot to be said about Nanites.
The fact that it's only been a little over a week since he was thrown through the wall and isn't even wearing a cast is a testament to their healing powers. He's still a little sore, still tired, and has been avoiding the house ever since that night.

He's sure that by now, One through Three have all heard about what exactly he did to get thrown through that wall, and he doesn't want to face that guilt, that vengence, that argument that he more than deserves.

Here has been easier. Here with Ben, who's seen him at his worst and was still in his corner. The gentle guiding voice when he needs it and the punch to the jaw when he needs it more. He's zoned out, not really paying attention, when Ben speaks.

"... Huh? Oh, yeah, Friday sounds like a good day to move out." He answers, his voice distant and distracted as he watches Star and Izzy instead.

Oct 12th and 13th - open to multiple

[the_horror]

On the 12th he officially moved into his room. Saying his good-byes to the two roommates he would miss in Jeopardy and packing his ca, he drove off to his new home. it felt... weird. like he was going to be tying himself down or something, but it also felt right? The conflict was still there but there was a warmth to moving in as well. He just had to remind himself, he wasn't losing his freedom. Kirk and Rikki can still come over. Things would be fine.

Having brought his bike over and parked it in the garage already, he was just in the beat up old Nova he had gotten, needing to work on it still, but it ran well enough to carry his things. The back seat was packed as was the trunk.

Outside he had it parked near the door, trunk open and hauling scuba gear out of the back, as well as some bags and boxes. If anyone wants to give him a hand, he'd be grateful.

The 13th was decorating time. He didn't have a lot, but he had enough to put up. His shelves lay in a pile on the floor, still needing to be put together again. In a new box was a wooden and metal desk that needed to be put together, brand new and not at all open yet. he was using a stool to tack up tapestries, soft cloth sheets, really, that he used to darken and cover the walls. He would need more of these later. And maybe some paint. The darker the room the smaller it would feel and he liked that feeling.

You could find him in his room, working to put it together. or...

Star wandered off. He had paused to say something to her, hearing Izzy at the door whining. Star had left the room and Izzy was too scared to follow. Ben dropped his arm to let the fuzzy pink feather snake climb up and wrap around his neck, and then he slipped out of his room, looking through the hall to see if Star was around.

A little black cat with a collar that had a star on it. She was a curious one. Missing somewhere in this huge house. He wasn't sure how to handle this so far. She had done so well to stay in his room before. Now she was lost somewhere in the house.

Did she wind up in one of his siblings rooms? Nesting into a bed somewhere? Did she make it to the kitchen, or maybe the basement centers. Lord he hoped she didn't get outside. He'd never find her if she did.

"Star?!" he called in a loud whisper, walking around looking for her. He wasn't sure how his siblings would handle pets, so he had intended to keep her in his room. Clearly that didn't work already.

Oct 13th { love is the answer, at least for most of the questions in my heart

[numberthree]

It's her third trip home since this all started, and it's looking like it'll be the second to last, or last, depending.

Vanya's time should be up sometime midweek, but that's still more clothes and things they both need, but coming by today, also, means she can drop in on Ben. She'd gotten to hear about his moving in yesterday from Luther, and it made it an even better time to swing by. Not that it would promise he was home. But it was a Sunday, and she could hope. Which paid off when she got there and spotted the bike outside the garage. The sight making her smile.

Allison dropped the dirty clothes, that need cleaning, and the bags she'd been carrying, on her own bed and went to look for Ben first. She found him, working on the walls of his room, stool under his feet and tacks in his hand. Trying not to surprise him too much, given his position and focus, she raised a hand and knocked on the bedroom door, lightly, rather than popping up anything in his vision.

Oct 5th } Vanya & Ben - Visitations

[the_horror]

He had heard that Allison stayed with Vanya for all of this time, and he as glad for it. glad someone stuck it out with her. of all of them, Allison was the most suited for it, maybe. the most likely to do okay about things. Ben wasn't even sure if his visit would be wanted, but he wanted to make sure Vanya knew he cared.

He did care. He wanted to be around all of them. Wanted to get to know them all better. He felt so awkward around Vanya but he wanted that to change too. Wanted to be able to hang out with her and not feel weird. He wanted to fix years of problems of the past and knew he couldn't, but maybe he could make it up to her some how.

None the less, he came for a visit. He wanted to let Allison have a break as well. He doubted she would take the offer, but he let her have the keys to his car if she wanted to go somewhere, get something or just take a nap.

The cells seem almost nice. He walks to the cell door and leans there, fingers wrapping around the bars and pressing his face to the cold metal.

"Hey..."

[gigue]

The cell could be much, much worse. Vanya knows this, and that keeps her resentment minimal: they've been kinder than they needed to be. She know she could be in a real jail, dealing with people who have no idea what it's like to have powers. She can imagine how they must hate her. Fear her.

She doesn't like imagining that.

When Ben shows up, she was just weighing the pros and cons of seeing if Allison was around - the worst part of this is when the guilt alleviates just enough to let her feel bored. Of course it comes rushing back in when she considers how Allison must be wasting all her time here with her. But it's Ben who comes into view, and Vanya stands slowly, unsure.

She's afraid of Ben's bad opinion of her. She knows she is, and it makes her even more tentative; her heels literally leave the floor, though she doesn't quite go up on tiptoe. V doesn't even notice she's done it, almost literally walking on egg shells.

"H-hi," she manages, pulling her sleeves down over her hands and crossing her arms. "You...came to visit me?" He could be looking for Allison, she reasons. That would hurt.

Oct 6 { But change is coming, it's our time now

[numberthree]

It's day five, when Allison finally decides to say something. She's been watching Derek come and go daily. Sometimes for just a few minutes, sometimes for a bit longer. But. Every. Single. Day.

More than the rest of the family.
More than anyone except Allison, herself.

Who really only leaves to shower & get them clothes, food, etc.

But it's Day five, and Allison looks up when she hears is voice checking in. Again. She preps the words before he ends up, coming into the area she's waiting in, reading, because there is a decided lack of things to do, but boredom is a cheap price for keeping her words to Vanya.

(I'm not going anywhere.

Not for anyone. Not for anything.)

She presses send only right before he should be stepping in. Her expression speculative without giving any true point to which direction those words should be taken, light or curious or pointed.

To: Derek Hale

So, you've been coming a lot.

[duelo]

Maybe this is all projection and Vanya just doesn't have it in her to tell him to just fucking leave her alone, but Derek goes at least for a few minutes every day to visit her at Aegis because he knows that he'd want her — or Jane, or Diego, or Stiles, or David — to visit him if he were stuck here. Sometimes, he stays for a long time, if he has the time to spare and the conversation keeps moving and she doesn't smell stressed out or upset.

It isn't lost on him that Allison is there even more than he is, like she's some kind of gatekeeper for her sister which, he supposes, he would be if it were Cora stuck in there. At some point, he expects to run into her more than just in happenstance passing, but when he finally does, it happens to be on a day where he's come to visit after work instead of before, so he's tired and drowning in the scent of the despair of everyone in the building, so when he sees the message, he can't muster the energy to bother with the mental network in response. She doesn't seem to mind when he doesn't use it and he'd rather use his energy focusing on the conversation and not with which method he projects his words to her.

"Not as much as you," he says with a small smile. "But yeah. She's my friend. It's important to me that she knows she's got my support." Especially when she'd seemed so genuinely surprised to see that he had actually come and hadn't written her off after what happened at their birthday party after he'd gone.

Spa Day! backdate to Sept 7th-8th } Allison, Vanya & Ben

[the_horror]

He wanted to spoil his sisters.

That was the motto of the day as he researched everything. Sure, it was on his bucket list, but there was a LOT more to this than that. he wasn't even sure if Allison could get Vanya to come but he hoped she would. He tried to make sure she knew she was welcome. Wanted.

There was this nice Spa place just outside of Nonah that wasn't a long drive away. The spa picked them up from the porter in a lovely car that offered them champagne and strawberries for the ride. He had ordered a suite for the three of them to stay over night in, and got a nice big package deal so they could choose what they wanted to do. mud Bath, swimming, spa, sauna, massage, facial, manicure and pedicures for the girls, the works. Dinner would be in the restaurant area with lunch the next day before they left. A full 24 hours of pampering.

Ben wasn't even expecting much for himself, but it all sounded very... amazing. When the car pulled up at the porter to meet them, a man got out to hold the door open for them. "Here we go. After you two." Ben said with a smile and a bow.

Honestly if this went well and everyone came out relaxed, he might do this bi-monthly.

[numberthree]

Allison has been looking forward to this all week, and that made getting to the day delight. Waking up and knowing there was nothing but some level of enjoyment in relaxing (hopefully), and getting to watch Ben and Vanya experience their first time at a Spa. Since the moment Ben brought it up as a suggestion, and Vanya agreed.

They could all use some time just relaxing and not having to worry about too much. Just being seen to and resting, while enjoying everything available around them. The limo, and champagne, and strawberries were a nice surprise and Allison couldn't help raising her eyebrows is a delightful curiosity at Ben even as she let herself indulge in the first and one or two of the second while the car went along.

The place when they got there -- Allison slipping out first to hold the door, while looking at the big entrance way -- was as big as the pictures had sold it, and even then, it was impressive.

October 11th { Luther - Fallout

[hellogoodhigh]

Klaus hasn't been home for the last three days.

With all the tension in the house following Vanya's incarceration, he's made himself scarce. He knows that news about the notebook, about his part in the apocalypse, about starting the final domino effect, has probably made it to the rest of his siblings. And that's exactly why Klaus has been sleeping at the shop in Jeopardy, has been crashing at other people's houses, or sneaking in late at night and disappearing in the early morning.

It's one of those mornings that he's curled up in his bed at the home in Nonah, half asleep., trying to drown out his latest nightmares under a layer of pillows and vodka. Vanya, pale as a ghost, her eyes nearly white, her suit and violin gleaming. Allison with her throat cut, the journal in his hands before he throws it into the dumpster, Leonard with a dozen knives in his chest- he bolts upright from a dream, hand on his chest, as if remembering the gut punch of being thrown the full length of the hall and into the wall.

"Fuck..." He swears, fumbling for something to take the edge off and help him sleep. He's out of chocolate, no joints in his cigarette case, and all he can do is roll over and shove a pillow over his head and try to block out the rest of the world.

[obediences]

Klaus is curled up like that, pillow clutched over his head, when there's a sharp knock at the bedroom door and then it opens before waiting for an answer. Luther walks in like he owns the place; like he'd done when they were kids together, or like he's Mom going around waking everyone up, getting the Academy up and moving for the day.

"Morning," he says, and flings open the curtains, letting in blinding dawn light.

Having heard Klaus come in late last night, he'd known that he was actually home for the first time in days and that there was a chance he could catch him. Klaus' absences haven't gone unnoticed. He's always been a wandering spirit since they got this house, often vanishing to sleep elsewhere, but the disappearances are more pronounced now. And Luther has a fair suspicion why.

It's something of a blessing, really, that Allison had been the one to give Luther that piece of information about the journal on the night-of. It had given him over a week to sit on it, to chew over it, to swallow it down and bury it as all the Hargreeves were so very good at doing.

Allison House Stops!Catch-all { A smile from a veil, do you think you can tell?

[numberthree]

It's strange how fast and slow time passes after their birthday party, but it's always brought back home in stark contrast when Allison comes home from Aegis. Aegis is neutral, clean, impersonal, created to be a professionally impersonal and untouched place. Their neighborhood....looks like a bomb hit it. Still. Of course, it does.

Her trips are short, fast, and so infrequent her family could blink and miss her. (Not for anyone.) And even that is more than her work is seeing her. (Not for anything.) But she comes home for showers, for clothes, to take things for them. Blankets, books, food, anything that seems sensible at the time.

Let's herself in quietly, keeping an eye out for if anyone does happen to be around, but with a definite plan for her time and not taking too long.

[hellogoodhigh]

His trips to the house have been coming later and later. Coming home late, leaving early, excusing himself with work and with friends in order to avoid his siblings. And in the wake of arguing with Luther, with Vanya, with Diego? Allison is one of the last people he wants to see. Too bad that he's run right into her as she's apparently gathering up her things to leave.

"Allison." He's high. Even though he reeks of weed and vodka, he hasn't quite pushed over the edge back to his worse habits. Even now, he's stubbornly clinging to that one shred of something good. Something that he's trying to be better with, with Ben's stubborn insistence egging him on. "Surprised to see you here."

we take strange things to feel normal; Klaus & Vanya

[gigue]

She's exhausted, but at least she can walk upright. Klaus, on the other hand...Well, Vanya doesn't offer to prop him up, after their argument she can't find the words - but after everything that happened on the train, she walks close to him, just in case it becomes necessary.

Leaving Derek behind feels kind of awful, but in the face of his anger she has no idea what to do. He'll find his way home eventually, and maybe...maybe he'll be less mad, by then.

Vanya's not holding her breath, though.

She doesn't know the shop Klaus takes her to, but she trusts when he says he knows a place nearby. Having never been to Jeopardy, she doesn't even know the way to the porter, and the prospect of finding her way there is so exhausting she'd be more inclined to lay down on the sidewalk.

"What is this place?" It's the first thing she's said the whole way, stewing in her thoughts.

[hellogoodhigh]

Klaus walks in a fugue state, exhaustion seeping in his bones. The walk from the train station to the shop isn't too far, fortunately, and he welcomes the small chime of the bell as he fumbles for his key, unlocks the door, and steps inside.

The sign firmly remains to the closed position- he's not in any mood to take on clients today.

Once they cross the threshold, it's like a different world. The heat of the evening sun on Jeopardy's streets is cut by the soft gloom of the sunset through the curtained windows, the cool permeating the air as he waits for the girl he's started calling their resident ghost to show up.

(Perhaps she only does when Klaus is there, but he doesn't want to think about that right now.)

"It's where I work." He says, matter of fact as Vanya asks. Quietly, he pushes aside a small curtain so he can start making a tea for them. He's not as good at it as Anathema, but all they need right now is something to help regain a bit of energy.

"Here. Let the leaves steep for a bit. I'll tell your future after we're done." He says with a wink and a smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes as he takes a seat in a rather comfy chair.

thought we hit rock bottom, then the floor gave out

[gigue]

After the Icarus, Vanya thought she would never play again.

It only seemed right, after all: why should she ever be trusted with a violin in hand again? And after finding the whole family in this strange universe with her, Vanya didn't even have to voice it out loud: Luther would never allow it.

But it was never Luther's permission she needed, not really; it was Allison's, and that permission came while she was held in Aegis' detainment facility. Playing is different now, better in a lot of ways. She's better, and frankly V doesn't know if that's fair, but she doesn't think she cares. She's as good as she should have always been, the real ingenue she was supposed to be a decade and a half ago.

She's not ready to find an orchestra to play with, yet - that feels too much like trying to recreate the life she had before, and there is a lot that Vanya really wants no part of, ever again. Diving in would be too much, so she starts small - playing on street corners, her violin case open at her feet for donations. It's not long before she tries branching out beyond Maurtia Falls, too aware of Aegis' presence there (not to mention the fact that Luther obviously wants some part with them).

De Chima is the obvious choice, the one place she knows almost as well as Maurtia Falls. But she hesitates, rolling back and forth in her mind over the options. What if she runs into Derek there? What does she say to him? It's been days since the train, and he hasn't said a word, no thank you, no apology, and she hasn't known how to reach out to him. He said to leave him alone.

When she does go, it's because she decides - fuck it. He's probably at work anyway, right? Or maybe just being an asshole to his other friends. (Or worse: not being an asshole to them.)

So she sets herself up on a street corner, violin on her left shoulder, bow in hand. It's chilly out, but not enough to deter her: she plays Guiseppe Tartini's Devil's Trill Sonata, and since she has no idea how her powers really work, or what they really cover, it's so easy to draw in a crowd.

[duelo]

Instead of reaching out to his friends when he needed them the most, he'd managed to alienate them. Rather than trying to reach out to people with whom he was less close in the absence of his two best friends, Derek had decided to isolate himself. It's been a long, lonely week and he'd taken on a few extra training sessions to pass the time and covered a few of his fellow trainers' classes for the same reason. What he hadn't expected was for the store manager to cut him off and send him home to avoid having to pay him overtime. So Derek finds himself with nothing to do for an entire day rather than just a few hours at the tail end of one.

So he wanders when his bedroom starts to feel too much like a prison. Even a depressed werewolf has to eat, after all. It's not until after he's finished his lunch and argued with himself internally over whether or not it'd be safe to go into the cafe he and Vanya used to frequent, while his stomach is settling and he's wondering if some coffee might warm him enough to help him relax — funny how coffee can sometimes do that for him since he metabolizes the caffeine too quickly for it to affect him — that he hears it.

Before he even gets close enough, Derek just knows that it's Vanya, half because it sounds amazing and half because she's so surrounded by a crowd that he can't see the person in the center. He's been thinking about that a lot, actually. How her playing managed to get him to follow her when he didn't want to and he thinks that it's probably part of her power that she used against him. Not a statement he would've thought he'd ever hear himself think or say, Vanya using a power against him, but that happened, didn't it? In her defense, he gets it. She didn't want him to die and she was saving his life. You know, like friends do.

He would have done the exact same thing in her shoes but on the receiving end of the rescue, he thanked her by shouting at her and insulting her and telling her to leave him alone. To her credit, she has.

It's sucked. He's still mad, a little, because he's still missing the closure he'd been hoping for with his sister, but maybe he didn't need to say goodbye. Laura did. Maybe that's closure enough because she hadn't last time. They both assumed she'd come back. This time, in retrospect when he thinks about it, Laura said her goodbye to him.

Maybe that's enough.

A small hole opens in the crowd and Derek can see Vanya playing, her eyes closed with focus, and instead of feeling a surge of renewed rage, Derek just feels sad. Like seeing her reminds him how much he misses having her in his life. He used to get mad at Laura all the time, but he never cut her out of his life. Why hadn't he extended his best friend the same courtesy? Seeing her reminds him how empty his days have been without their trips to the cafes here and in Maurtia Falls.

The way she recoiled when he'd shouted at her flashes through his mind and Derek sighs, frowning, and he finds himself walking forward, moving toward the small crowd Vanya's drawn in, not because her music is forcing him, but because he wants to hear it and he wants to see her and she's not even looking, so maybe it's fine to indulge himself a little and join the crowd to appreciate her talent before he goes on with his day and tries to tell himself that he doesn't need her and she doesn't need him and things are fine; he'll be fine.

October 31; closed to Klaus & later, Ben

[justaddh2o]

Right, she might as well put this on her own little bucket list just so she's got it to cross off. Rikki doesn't do parties and, for Ben, this is the second in a month, bookending the month perfectly. He'd said it's a Halloween party, yeah, but Rikki doesn't really do Halloween, either. She doesn't do much when it comes to this sort of thing. She'll go to a party with someone she cares about if it's something that they care about, but that's about it. When it comes to holidays, Rikki celebrates Christmas and little else. Even then, her version of Christmas is a pretty meager affair compared to what everyone else probably thinks of when they think of Christmas.

Halloween? Rikki hasn't had a Halloween costume or bothered to acknowledge it since the Halloween before her mum left and they could actually afford to go to the store to buy her a costume. She's been to a Halloween party or two in the twelve years between then and now, but she'd never bothered to dress up.

So, when she rings the doorbell to the Hargreeves' home, she's dressed in what she's always dressed in: a pair of capri-length jeans and a plain-colored camisole under a lighter colored short-sleeve button-up left open, finished off with her mermaid necklace and a pair of tennis shoes. If Ben had wanted her to dress up, he probably should've said so.

Klaus is the one that answers the door, though, instead of Ben, which surprises her. Usually, when she's meant to come round, Ben meets her at the door and they go, unless the plan is to train or come inside for a movie or something. "Oh...erm...is Ben home?"

[hellogoodhigh]

It's an odd, fortuitous timing.
Klaus has mostly been avoiding home, but with Halloween tonight? He'd rather be anywhere but Jeopardy. It's why he's fled home to Nonah, to hide from the ghosts and ghouls that are sure to press their way through the veil a little more than normal in that strange place.

Still, when he hears the knock at the door, it's not a girl he's expecting.
She seems familiar- someone who was at the party, but he can't remember who's guest.
"Hey! Oh, Ben? Yeah, he's not here at the moment." Something about needing more makeup, wanting to make everything perfect for tonight. He was going to a Halloween party.

"Are you going to the party with him? I can show you to a place you can change, come on in! I'm Klaus." He sticks out a tattooed hand. "Nice to meet you...?"