elfstoned | IC Contact Post [for savetheearth]

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.

If it has a shower and a bed, it'll do.

[He helps haul the ladder up (it's easier with two people) and will start the descent. That goes rather faster.

Speaking of showers, Julien will pick up on it -- Aaron smells like he's been smoking again, and recently.]

Don't worry about it. Just head in - closest showers are in there off to the left, they're pretty Spartan. Pool showers, really.

[It's good to get off the wall. Two and a half feet thick, easy for Julien to stay atop, he keeps an eye out for Aaron's balance the whole time.

Oh, yes, he smells it and feels it as a stinging in his throat and chest, stronger since they'd both been up on the wall there. He's not sure if that's the particles clinging to Aaron and his clothes, or just some psychological reaction to the smell since he's struggled so much breathing secondhand smoke. He waits until he can unmoor the ladder from atop the wall, and there's a little more distance, before trying to clear the sensation away. His cough doesn't sound anything like normal coughing. Heavy, sharp exhales.

Better stay upwind, he decides. And put on a kettle for athelas.]

Edited 2015-03-10 00:31 (UTC)

[He is so far from picky right now. Aaron can handle being dirty, has been dirtier than this, but this is a kind of filth that sticks to him, weighs him down. He wants to wash the past two weeks off along with it.

Aaron gives Julien a nod and disappears.

He'll be in there a while. When he comes out, it's with his hair still wet, pulling on a t-shirt Julien will have never seen before. The clothes are clean enough to be tolerable, if not particularly laundry-fresh.

Aaron wanders deeper into the house, looking for something, somewhere, that he can lie down on.]

[There are lounging chairs and some couches he could curl up on, though they're in open, airy empty space and at least partially taken up by a variety of cats, who are ruining the aesthetic. And scratching on the wooden anime robot. Some kind of super-Roomba is noisily handling a recent puke.

Julien's white and blue fit in pretty well in the kitchen. He's made some kind of lentil soup and bit some athelas into a different boiling pot. Now he sticks his head out as Aaron passes the doorway, bits of green still stuck in his beak.]

If you want to go sleep I'll get this in the fridge. Just uh... you can try there, the canopy curtains will keep it dark.

[He comes out the rest of the way, considering - yes, sure. In slightly awkward Sindarin:] Here it is safe. Rest. I will guard.

[....Aaron, if asked, wouldn't know if it's the athelas or the food or the Sindarin or the sleep-dep, but something about all of it drains the last of his energy from him. His eyes sting; he passes a hand over his forehead.]

You did not have to do this. This was not asked of you, but I am grateful.

[The feathers on Julien's head and neck fluff up in an affectionate 'expression', and he has to pause to decide what to say, how to say it.

Okay, just a little bit of snark, though there's nothing insincere about it. What was the right way to say... got it.]

I love you too. Rest.

[All the fight's gone out of him. Aaron goes where Julien pointed, and it's not thirty seconds before his breathing changes, turns shallow.

He won't wake up until tomorrow morning.]

[An hour in Julien checks on him and spends some time measuring and evaluating Aaron's changes with his eyes, and staring at the changed, familiar face ~~like a total creeper~~ before easing the blanket over him and leaving, closing the door in an attempt to keep the cats out.

He's not glad this happened, but he's glad Aaron came here off the streets, and it is good to provide and care for someone again. He feels like he hasn't done that in a long time.]

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