elfstoned | IC Contact Post [for savetheearth]

And what a piece of work he is.

I could leave the address out somewhere if you thought you could get to it before anyone else, if you don't want to talk to me. Though, I will be watching.

Bring it to Freedom Park.

Gotcha. No veren~☆

[actually the star was eight-pointed and circled. Julien is a nerd too.

Anyway, his stealth talent seems to work well when he's in the air. On this rare sunny day his shadow can be seen flickering and racing as he circles over the park in a long and leisurely descent, passing closer and closer to an old picnic bench until he can go into a long and shallow dive that ends as he thumps down on it.

...and it cracks loudly as the weathered rot-eaten boards of the table give way. Julien leaps back, backwings gracefully, lands on the ground, and his tail thrashes.]

Seriously?

Well, you did make it easy to find you.

[Where was he a second ago? You're not sure. It's like he popped out of the goddamn ground, and he's folding up some kind of gray-green cloth and sticking it in a bag. Aaron is -- is it Aaron? The voice is the same, but deeper and rougher. That, though, could just be thanks to a night spent out-of-doors. His clothes are dirty -- not horrendously filthy, not yet, but they're the clothes of someone who's spent more than 24 hours outdoors. Aaron Strider has never looked more homeless, and that's saying a lot.

He pulls down the hood of his jacket.

But he only looks like Aaron Strider if you know to look for him. Aaron is there in the jaw, the eyes and the nose, the chin and the cheekbones, but the whole face looks wilder. The long, lank hair and the week's worth of stubble has a lot to do with it -- and so does the fact that he clearly hasn't slept much -- but his whole face looks sharper, more intense. He looks weather-beaten in a way Aaron never did, and his hair is black now, streaked with gray. He's also about six inches taller.

This is the man that frightened a poor provincial town, the face that launched a thousand nicknames. You wouldn't want to see him coming toward you in an alley.]

[It's rare for Julien to miss seeing something when he was this close. He startles, feet shifting to a more stable stance, head drawing back and up, feathers hackling and bristling, pupils flaring and his wings unfolding part of the way to make him seem bigger. In a second or so he's refolded his wings and his feathers slick down close to his body, but he holds everything else, pupils pinning.

Ever since his eyes changed Julien has identified faces in different ways. He can see Aaron in this man's bone structure, but the mapping of blood vessels and skin damage, old injuries and exposure to the sun, they're totally different. Fascinatingly so. It reminds him, actually, of nothing quite so much as his most recent memory, which unfortunately downgrades the intimidation factor a bit.]

-You look like Hiyoko.

[His mouth twists in a humorless grin.]

Then I pity Hiyoko.

It's not bad. It's how humans are.

[He pauses, blinks. Right. Yes.]

In the dystopian future where humans all live in the wilderness and get attacked by animals a lot.

Point is, hardiness and good blood flow. I think.

You might be the first person ever to compliment Aragorn on his blood flow.

Oh, probably. It's not something normal people see very well. Take it as a compliment! She is or was a wonderful girl.

Galu, by the way. [He tilts his head, draws himself up to be taller.] I didn't know you could do that with the cloak.

There is magic to it, I imagine. A patrol car drove right past me.

...Must be. Gods and dirt indeed. This is a miserable time to go on the run, I'm sure you've noticed.

[Julien goes and tries to walk a circle around Aaron, like nothing quite so much as a dinosaur.]

What's with you and getting long hair? This looks uh... distinct.

[Aaron sighs.]

Where's the safehouse, Julien?

[It's not often that Aaron isn't in the mood to indulge Julien's tangents. It's one of the things Aaron likes about him. Now, though? Aaron looks nothing so much as worn down right now.]

[Julien stops in his tracks and refocuses. He doesn't miss much in his sight, but he can fail to notice some things. The lack of sleep and flagging energy, he immediately feels he should have seen those first.]

-hmm. Well, I don't think you're your evil twin. Okay. [He recites the address. It's a long ways as the roads go, but as a pigeon flies over the woods around the park, it's less far.] I could show you the way.

And bring you something. When's the last time you ate?

[The answer to that is "yesterday," but Aaron doesn't give it. Instead he nods, grimly.]

I'll walk it. Food can wait.

[He doesn't know the area, but point him in a direction and he's sure he'll find the street. It's why he chose this park -- it was in the right general direction.

More than anything, Aaron wants to be out of the open, somewhere he can sleep. He feels like he could sleep for a week.]

[Fortunately Julien came at least a little prepared. He ducks his head and uses his beak and opposite wing to get his messenger bag open and pull out a granola bar to shove at Aaron.]

Here, this is weighing me down.

[And he steps back a pace.]

Come on, old timer. I'll show you the way.

[He accepts it, but doesn't break into it like a starving man. He pulls up his hood and falls into step behind Julien first. Part of why Aaron hasn't eaten is a lack of drive -- he could have gone somewhere earlier today, could have gotten his hands on something, but it seemed like so much effort. It had been easier to wrap himself in the Lorien-cloak and sink into the roots of an oak tree and let the sun warm him and let his mind be blank.

But he opens it as he walks, slowly, knowing he should eat it. He takes a bite, and it feels dry in his throat. But he swallows, and takes another one.]

I'll keep ahead of you on foot for a while. Don't worry, the closest person is like half a mile away.

[Julien just cannot walk or run as fast as Aaron easily could, but right now, he's probably got the right speed. His stealth talents can make him silent but visually... in the weak sunlight he almost glows, somehow seeming like a gap in the trees to the most casual look.

He does know the way, and how to make a detour around the marshy area that he's not sure Aaron can forge through right now. Julien does not get lost anymore. There is a kind of map in his head and he can sense where he is on it, even from here on the ground.]

I should warn you, the house and grounds are walled off. I can get a ladder down, or you can come around to the gate.

[Chew, chew, swallow.]

What are the chances of going over the wall without being seen -- and without setting off alarms?

Fully one hundred percent, unless you're worried about what cats think.

[He's got his tiny phone out in his wing, the feathers moving.]

I've disabled the security. You can watch me land on the wall if you want to be sure. The closest house isn't actually visible from the top of the back wall, even for me. This guy takes privacy seriously.

I'll take the walls.

Right, then.

[Julien pushes forwards, unsnagging his bag from a branch, and jumping flaps his wings to land atop the ten-foot brick wall. Indeed there's no alarm.

There are no trees right around it. Under stubborn snow the grass is very long and tall weeds are everywhere, and some vines are making their way up the wall itself. The grounds aren't being maintained all that well in the owner's absence.]

Hang on a second, I'll get the ladder. It's rope.

[He'll wait.

It is unbelievable how sketch he looks right now. This is new levels of Aaron Strider: Dangerous Hobo.]

[He still looks a whole lot like Hiyoko, or those other humans Julien had seen at more of a distance in an older memory. The world had stepped on these people, and Yuuya - Julien knows his name now - had had kind thoughts about their resilience.

It still makes Julien close his inner eyelids when he pokes his head out over the edge a few minutes later, to roll the ladder down. It is rope, and wood rungs.]

Okay, I think it's secure. Can you carry your bag up? I could get it.

-Fair warning, this place is ridiculous.

I'll manage.

[Ridiculous or not, he'll take it. Aaron tests the ladder with one hand, giving it a firm tug, and then begins to climb. It's not slow going, but it's not as fast as he could have done two days ago.

When he reaches the top, he blinks -- and stares.

Julien was right. This is ridiculous. He doesn't have the heart to comment on it right now, but huh.]

Yeah, it's like that. Give that here.

[The yard is also not in that great a shape, and the outdoors pool is covered over. Still.

Julien start hauling the ladder up so he can dump it on the other side.]

Later I'll set you up with a pin number or just a card or something so you can do whatever even when the security's on, it'll think you're supposed to be here.

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