No update tonight (it needs outlining for efficiency; this scene must end before it gets tiresome), but here is my illustration of Tama.
◊
"Are you not a little young to have met him?" asked Demetrius.
"Legally." Kenichi grinned sheepishly. "Lucrezia—she dragged me into this very office for walking into the bar when I was...way, way, way underage. Don't ask. I just wanted to see what he looked like. Maybe take a picture."
"You had no idea...!" Demetrius laughed aloud, concealing his mouth again under his hands. A splash of red on his cheeks interrupted the monochrome of his head. "Cameras made him clam up every time. He didn't let you, did he? Not without me to hold his hand so he wouldn't hide at the last second?" he teased.
"He did let me...get most of his face."
"Impossible...! What did you want his picture for?"
"I'd heard he was the scariest person in all of Iosethep—the scariest with their face still intact. And I was a little kid, you know."
Demetrius's face fell, and he uncovered his mouth. "I am even more surprised, then. He never liked that. As scary as his drawings were, he only acted the part for the people of Section Eight. Many of them knew who he was—it was dangerous. He had to frighten them to survive, and to keep them away from me. He was as good at cleaning the upstairs as he was at fighting, and he adored old, pretty things..."
"I picked that up. He was pretty damn understanding with me. I still wanted the picture because I liked his hat. Was that a ladies' hat pin he had?"
"Yes," Demetrius giggled. "That will tell you everything you did not know about him. It was Ginger's."
"You knew her? I mean, I've seen Lux II, but you don't look like a puddle. Not even close. Like the opposite of a puddle. An anti-puddle—"
"Understood," said Demetrius flatly.
"Sorry. She was just the housekeeper, wasn't she? Then...what what was Aubrey doing cleaning your floor?"
"What do you think?" Demetrius's eyes shone, giving his answer. "That was my question. If that question never leaves a child's head, it will take them years to answer it fully, fragment by fragment, at the pace at which their mind grows older. Ten years is enough to leave one dedicated forever to answering more. But I still have the one. I am yet to be in love myself; there is more to know."
"I didn't know," gasped Kenichi. "All I knew was that she had put that curse on Lux II...I didn't know that. No one got to know anything more than that she was a housekeeper here, and she just fucking attacked...! So neither of them were as dangerous as they appeared..."
"Oh, she was," Demetrius quickly corrected. "But she only used it that once. Would you expect nothing to happen? Someone had killed the man she loved, so thoroughly that she did not even get a last look at his face. She had last seen him nervous about his appointment with this unpredictable archduke that he was not allowed to refuse. She had last heard him promise, to give her a little more hope that she would see him again, that he would resist himself and intimidate this archduke out of doing anything rash. And if something did happen to him, that he might yet be saved in another form—that appeared dashed, too. Purposely, for no good reason."
"Stop," murmured Kenichi with his elbows on the desk and his hands buried in his hair. "Please, I already see it in my head...do I want to know why he had to meet Lux II?"
"That I did not get to know, either, but probably not—the pursuit of why would best be saved when there is no longer a pressing matter at hand for us to concentrate on."
When Kenichi let one hand back onto the desk, Demetrius touched it for a third time. This was, Kenichi realized, the only physical gesture of understanding Demetrius could make in his state. He had worked for Lux II, and Demetrius still did this. He tried to speak through the lump this produced in his throat, but failed.
"There is nothing you have to say. The two of us will make sure that no Langley ever does that again. I have explained my part in it. Now to yours."
edited 7th Sep '10 8:00:36 AM by harmattane
Ce ne pas un post.I...
You have rendered me speechless again.
These characters are so complex, and so real about the way they hide and flaunt that complexity at the same time. You have captured the weirdness of being old too soon... of having to deal with things that you're too young for, but there's no one else, so you deal with them the best you can and you hope you are doing it right... of having questions that you either don't dare ask, or have no one to ask and not even knowing if knowing the answer would help...
Right now, I want to give both Kenichi and Demetrius a hug.
Thanks, though I'm not so sure where I conveyed that; I was just writing as usual.
Anyway, hugging Demetrius is complicated; most people just kiss him. He's not averse to that.
I'm working on the last update of this conversation, which is going to wrap it up before having a long chapter that's mostly talking kills the story.
Ce ne pas un post."Anything," said Kenichi.
Demetrius looked at him quizzically before describing what he had in mind. His ally was his own kind of dangerous. "You may hold off agreeing with me until you have heard everything. What I ask of you is a lot of time, possibly pain."
Kenichi listened.
"I may have threats within Iosethep handled, but not outside. Mainly, they would come from two sources. One, Lux II's staff, the portion embittered or ashamed enough to flee the city. Your first line of protection against them is those who stayed. Though I could persuade none to join you, they are likely to remain in contact, at least to hear if there is to be an attack. And if they fail, the watch again. These are only human.
What you should be concerned about are those who would wish to take the archduke's place. The country is divided into four, four provinces no longer recognized by parliament, inhabited by four lesser dukes and their families who no longer govern." Demetrius took the nearest notepad and flipped to the blank reverse of the last page. He drew on it a rough outline of the country and divided it into thirds with straight lines. "The Langleys have the central one—" He circled it. "—and the desert one, I might add." He drew a tiny, tiny indentation into the top border of the central third, then a wide rectangle attached to the top. This section was one inhabited dot with an expanse of nothing attached, just what one Langley might give to another. "That would belong to Lux II's brother, Vox Langley, and with his weak history and city of Lorre being drained by his medical expenses, I would not call him an immediate danger." The notch into the central province was Lorre, his only city. "Someday? Likely, but not now. As well, the central is shared with the Langleys by Girard. You know him—is he any threat?"
“No. He ignores the Langleys. They are nobody to him.”
"Then it is the remaining two lesser Dukes that are the most you have to worry about." Demetrius circled the provinces on either side of the central one. "Houses Oros—" The east one. "—and Desmarais. To watch for an opening to usurp the Langleys has been a longstanding tradition of each, and they have a history of trying. The Langleys have Oros to thank for a painfully earned immunity to poisons of several varieties, and more recently, Desmarais is forever under investigation for abuse of cloning. Information is traveling outside of Iosethep, and when it reaches them, expect a visit that the watch is powerless to stand in the way of."
"What do I do about them?" Kenichi asked. "I can't be the only one there to fend them off..."
"If I could exchange my body for one more mobile, there would be two of us.” Demetrius shrugged, somehow. “You are all there is, but you have a chance."
"You think I could just fight them if they came and tried anything? No, I can’t. The people in Section Eight look tame compared to what these upper aristocrats do to themselves. All Langleys don’t just have a knife built into their finger—I heard that Lux II had beams in his eyes that could boil people’s blood. He had all of the security displays playing in his head. He could touch people and electrocute them. Even Girard had razor blades in everything. I couldn’t just stab these people…!”
“No, but you could equal them. First tier augments are difficult to find, but in Iosethep, there is one place." Demetrius wrote a phone number in his notepad from memory, tore it off and slid it in front of Kenichi. "While you are welcome to choose the surgical modifications, it is possible to match Oros and Desmarais without anything invasive. I realize this is a lot to ask of you." Demetrius's eyebrows furled nervously as he watched Kenichi gape back at him, frozen. "If you know a way that would make you more comfortable, tell me now."
"If I could have your fucking babies!"
Demetrius visibly relaxed.
"Don't change a thing—this is the most awesome thing I've ever heard. How are we going to pay for this? These things must cost skillions."
"Not quite so much, and you can leave that to me. My father left me all of the money he never bothered to use, and there was quite a bit he never bothered to use. There is a reason the upstairs here is boring. Additionally, it includes the remnants of his own inheritance—what really went from his mother to his brother, Magnus, but he thought Aubrey needed it more. We have enough for you to choose a medium array of augments."
"Are you sure you want to spend that on me?"
"On what you represent to me. Is there something you think I would find worthwhile?"
"Not really." Not only to protect Lux—Kenichi understood if he saw Lux II as an apex of the Langleys' dysfunction. It could end permanently piercing the sky with the damage he had done, or it could be brought downhill. And with a touch of guilt, it occurred to Kenichi that he would separate himself from Lux II's other employees who had stayed. However, that idea only played as background noise on top of the image of Demetrius watching Ginger and Aubrey together for the last time, which still repeated.
"Give me one night to talk to our dealer before making any contact with her. I want her to find out our purpose from me, like Kimura. I will then give you directions to the place." Demetrius closed his notepad. He was done. "Do you have any questions?"
"What was she like?"
"The dealer? Underground, surgeon, drove the others of her tier out of business in Iosethep. I am yet to speak to her."
"No, Ginger. To you."
Yes, you read that right; the story now includes supervillains. Does it have everything yet?
Since this piece is so important to laying out a large part of the rest of the plot, it's one that was very tricky for me to plan out, and I still can't be sure if it's okay from the reader's perspective, too. Even needing to redo the whole update wouldn't be a surprise. Let me know if you have any concerns with how this fits or how it could work.
edited 8th Sep '10 2:45:09 AM by harmattane
Ce ne pas un post.Waiting to see inside Demetrius's head? Now, you're not. Ever again.
"Paid little attention to me at first," Demetrius answered. "Aloof. I cannot say I blame her, finding out her lover had a surprise two-year old, but once she gave me the chance to talk to her, I saw her change her mind on her face, immediately. I do not know what I did right, but she never stopped talking back."
"You were just you, that's why," said Kenichi. "You and Lux...you guys scare me."
Demetrius gave him the blank look again.
"Not like that, no...startle me, maybe. Confuse me. I'm talking myself into a hole, aren't I? You're both younger than me, but you both sound so much older. Really, I'm sure it's cleverer."
"If we do..." Demetrius's eyes shifted. "There is more to sounding old than intellect. You display it in some things I have forgotten how to do, Kenichi."
Kenichi could not help but imagine a two-year-old Demetrius—smaller, not yet malformed—speaking to a grown woman with the same tone and verbosity he used with Kenichi now. It may have actually been that way, Kenichi noted. Demetrius had had quite a detailed long-term memory for a child; that he knew was extraordinary. She would be interested. "Did she teach you how to curse people?"
Demetrius laughed shyly. "I could do no such thing even if I wanted to. But she taught me everything else, like all about what it is like far from Section Eight and outside of Iosethep—it's hard for a child or a mutant to safely cross out of a place like this. She taught me how to pick locks—my poor father." Kenichi got to see the wicked smile this time, and it transfixed him. "But she also told me how to make him cry, in a happy way:" Demetrius lowered his voice to a whisper, pretending to tell a secret. "You call him pretty. And she taught me how all of the little mechanical details in this place operated, then what she knew of how the people did. How to talk to cats, how to knock someone unconscious with one touch—"
"How?"
"Use a fist, very hard. She taught me how to shoot, as there has never been a time when engaging someone hand-to-hand wouldn't have brought my instant death, she showed me why this building would not survive an earthquake and why there should never be one here, how to hypnotize a person with a button—want me to show you?"
"With who?"
"You," beamed Demetrius, mostly through his eyes. With his business with Kenichi finished, he wanted to play. "Do you think I can?"
"Not yet..."
Listening to Kenichi, Demetrius tipped his head and raised his eyebrow. "Definitely," he said under his breath, but only just under. He wanted Kenichi to hear; the trick was to convince him to do everything himself. "That's what everyone says. Do you have a button? I am afraid I never have any extras; they have all been used to readjust coats or replace lost ones."
"Here—" Kenichi reached under his own coat to his uniform top, which it served to hide, and pulled off the star from Hisakawa. He placed it on the desk and pushed it toward Demetrius. "Use this one. You can keep it. The doctor gave it to me, which was nice of her, but then she tried to kill Lux and ruined it. Said it looked like me—eh, I think it looks more like you."
Demetrius picked it up. "It's lovely...I won't have it sewn to anything."
Kenichi crossed arms on his lap and leaned back in his chair. "You still going to try me? Just don't have me do anything crazy in front of the Chapals, okay?"
"Nothing at all. And already, I am." Demetrius gave Kenichi a second to be curious, not to speak. "Close your eyes," he said, and Kenichi did so, already wondering if he had a choice.
Kenichi heard something moving for about a minute, maybe Demetrius. It sounded difficult. "Are you all right?"
"Yes." The sound stopped. "Open your eyes, Pointing them up as high as you can."
Kenichi opened his eyes, but Demetrius stole them from any direction. He leaned over his edge of the desk as far as he could, spilling his murky garments all over it and all over Kenichi's vision. Kenichi saw only blackness and Demetrius's head; hair fell in his eyes and strained red spots grew on his cheeks like those Lux would get.
"No, up—at the button." Above Kenichi's forehead, Demetrius held it between two fingers. Kenichi met it with his eyes, which pointed so far up that his pupils could barely be seen above his upper eyelids. "Keep looking. Concentrate on it and pay no attention to my other hand..." With said hand, Demetrius measured one of Kenichi's eyes against a finger. Here, he began to flat out make things up. "Yes, all three radians. People like you make the best possible subjects. I could tell there was something about you...keep concentrating. You only see the button, not me. Your eyes will start getting tired." From looking up so hard, but Demetrius did not mention it, needing not to break the illusion that he had anything to do with what Kenichi felt.
Kenichi's eyelids vibrated. He blinked once.
"Oh, already. I'm sorry all I have for you is that shoddy little chair, but you are looking more and more comfortable in it." Kenichi's shoulders dropped immediately. Demetrius watched him blink for a moment, not moving. "I can hear your breathing slowing down. You are becoming more relaxed." Kenichi blinked more slowly. "That's right. Why not your eyes, too? Why not...let them remain closed?"
Kenichi did, and Demetrius tucked the button away into some uncharted pocket. Then he turned back to Kenichi. Eyes still shut, he appeared to sleep. Demetrius, with both hands tightly bound over his mouth to keep it from releasing a terrible giggle, finally let himself release his mind's grip on his emotions, causing him to blush lividly. Why are you so cute? The least complicated reason Kenichi had to trust Demetrius to keep him and the Langley skyscraper from harm had been the one Demetrius had not dared say anything about.
It took a physical strain to keep from brushing Kenichi's hair out of his eyes; Demetrius was afraid that he wouldn't be able to take his hands away. For that matter, stop himself from combing through Kenichi's sleepy hair for hours and hours, repeating long into the morning that he had never met someone so good at this in his life...he crossed his arms tightly, as if they would do it against his will, and shuddered. Disturbing, cruel thought. Kenichi would not have ever set foot in this office if he had known what a bad person Demetrius London was.
Several years before, the first time an invasive kind of feeling had alarmed him into awkwardly cutting his time with a male visitor short, he had identified it quickly. He had remembered his misshapen body and concluded that he had no use and would never have any use for that feeling. For some reason, he had assumed that reasoning around it would stop it from coming back. It did, twofold, threefold. Things came into his head, things like what he had imagined about Kenichi, that chilled him with the fear that he would lose control and do them someday. Sometimes, he let them stay in his mind anyway, to run their entire course—thus, bad person. And those times when he managed to control everything, everything just moved into his dreams. He had one entire dream about just hair.
The Chapals had no idea. Telling anyone what happened to him, he thought, would encourage his functionless desires. He was the most intelligent of the three; if he could not stop them, no one could. And no one could. As much as his mother's genetics had visibly messed with him, his father's had a way of working quietly underneath and sometimes kicking up something that meant even more. There was no way around it; Demetrius carried the genes of Section Eight's most infamous libido. Aubrey and Ginger had been perfect for each other because they had had the sex drives of five people each. Demetrius was seventeen; seventeen was when his father had snuck out of his mother's house down in Sef and taken a four hour train ride to Iosethep to fuck a man and woman with tentacles. At least Demetrius only had one preferred sex to worry about; one was more than enough. He had never touched more than one hand on another man, and if that did not change soon, he felt like he would just jump someone unsuspecting someday. Except that he could not jump. From there came all of his tension.
Kenichi's hair was in his eyes. It was in his eyes, and if he opened them this way, they would be poked by his hair. It would take one emotionless motion of the wrist to correct it. Demetrius shot out one arm and swept the hair away with one little finger, then snapped the arm back. Done.
Gods, the hypnosis had been a terrible idea, but there was business to it, too. Another thing Ginger had taught him was that when he was in great personal danger, in the age of quick clones and holographic masks, to deal each person he knew an identifying token that only he knew about, that he could check if in doubt that they were themselves. Demetrius liked to plant his tokens in the mind, and as a London and a feet-wide, immobile target with twice as many vital parts to hit as everyone else, he was always in great personal danger.
Deva would unconsciously leave the three out of their building's address if asked to repeat it a third time. Nitya would take out one contact lens and put it back in if she heard Demetrius singing. His uncle, Magnus London, would feel a mosquito bite him and try to slap it away if Demetrius combed his hair in his presence. Bones would remember that she had something to do but not what whenever Demetrius clicked his heels on the floor.
Kenichi's would have to be a friendly one. He trusted Demetrius so easily for a reason—he had a mind vulnerable to being filled by others with cruel cues and manipulations. If Demetrius had to add a compulsion, it would be a little gift. "Kenichi," he began. My physical proportions are normal, and I am standing behind your chair. My right hand traces your neck, and my left—BE QUIET. "Whenever you hear the full name Demetrius Lauren London, you will smell roses. You will not remember that I told you this, but your nose will."
Demetrius would not be able to keep Kenichi here long after he woke up. He switched on his earpiece and called Deva, the Chapal less likely to ask question. "Deva? Will you call me again in sixty seconds? I am finished with him."
"Yes. Did he cause you any trouble?" she answered.
"No, but we have discussed everything, and I feel about to fall asleep." That was truth; he tired easily due to his mass and could enter sleep at a second's notice. "Kindly call me back in sixty seconds." He switched off the earpiece. "Wake up, Kenichi."
"Where did the button go?" Kenichi opened his eyes and looked around the ceiling. "Did you do it yet?"
"Yes."
"Damn..." Kenichi brushed his hair out from behind his ear and back in his eyes. "Wish I'd kept that button now; gods know Lux could use silencing sometimes," he laughed.
Demetrius steepled his fingers on the desk as he had in the beginning. "I did not have time for anything funny, be assured. You slept through my call to Deva—you are wanted back downstairs." His earpiece beeped, and he turned it back on. "One moment—" He covered it with his hand. "Deva."
Ce ne pas un post.Kenichi had not noticed what was missing from Demetrius's speech before it had disappeared. Since he had awoke, a shred of Demetrius's perfect composure had been missing. Something troubled him somewhere deep, and it halved his sentences and shaved off the flirtatious curl that had edged his voice and made it Demetrius's. Poor, funny kid. For the first time, he sounded like a seventeen-year-old in such a physical condition was expected to sound.
"You nervous?" asked Kenichi as he stood to leave.
"Not significantly."
"If I had so much to think about and nowhere to go, I would be. Here, I can give you my—" Kenichi began to reach into his coat pocket, but stopped. "You probably have all you need to contact me in ten different ways plus a few I don't know about."
"Only seven."
"Only...? Call me if you need to be nervous for a while. I could use something to do—Lux tells me all sorts of things to do around the skyscraper, but next I turn around, he's done it all himself. Goober."
"His confusion does not surprise me. He has just watched the hierarchy that carved all but a month of his life break in his father's hands. Its phantom would remain on his senses, but only a phantom. Your kindness is working below. But me—do not concern yourself with me. Remember that I have already finished the tensest bits of the plans alone." Indeed. Putting himself in the hands of a distracted teenager who kept melting his cool and nonviolent intentions and could not even keep down his own violence against himself, Kenichi really was his own worst danger.
"I mean it—you do it for everyone else."
"You are arguing with a wall, Kenichi."
Ah, Kenichi guessed, Demetrius did not want him to leave. That was it. For someone who never left the same room, he loved company. It had been at least three years, if Demetrius's timescale had been precise. On his way out, Kenichi stood on his toes to reach over the desk and tousled Demetrius's hair jokingly.
Kenichi. Demetrius's face would have turned blue had he blushed any harder. You could kill me that way.
"You're a good friend, little guy."
"We may agree to disagree. Expect to hear from me tomorrow evening. I will try to arrange for you to meet with our dealer as soon as her schedule allows." Go. I need you to go before my ability to work for us both becomes any more compromised.
Deva knocked on the door from the outside. No one knew how good the timing was, not even her.
"You are being waited for."
"All right. I'll see you!" Kenichi ran out the door for fear that it was Nitya.
That was one anomaly passed, a moment's skip in a track that had looked the same for three years: like the empty office of Demetrius's father. He saw people all the time, but the duration of his one view of the door.was so expansive that he could not integrate meeting them into it smoothly. Tonight, it also looked like his palm on his face. He asked himself a question he had before: when can I have one single meeting like an adult?
A memory of his father at his oldest, forty-three. He had still loved everyone's hair then. Right, never. We are an atypical sample. Gods, we are freaks.
"Just one second—I forgot something!" A small outbreak of voices just on the other side of the door, and Kenichi quickly stepped back in, closing it and leaning against it. He was rubbing his arm again. "One more thing."
"Nitya told you to compliment my eyes. You have my permission to forgo it and tell her you did."
"She—shit, she did. They aren't bad, but it's something else." He leaned toward Demetrius, squinting. "Are you still in contact with Miyagi?"
"I recall telling you so." Demetrius's voice had completely steeled into a monotone, and he had covered his mouth in blankets again without noticing until he felt them against his lips as he spoke. Will you ever go?
"You know what would look really good on you? Robot legs!"
Demetrius raised his eyebrow. This was a complete shift in modes.
"Lots of 'em. I don't mean any offense, but you would need quite a few, like..." Kenichi tipped his head and traced several things in the air with his fingers. "...robot spider legs. Hell yes. Loads of people who can't walk get around somehow, but you want something that matches the rest of you. You could go downstairs and fit right in with the walls! Why not?"
Why? Demetrius had always clung to this room anyway, particularly as his appearance had warped. All of his wrappings were more difficult to keep in place standing up, and eventually, he could not stand and maintain balance. By then, resigning to one place had been no change.
Deva knocked on the door again. "Bloody moron! I'm sorry, Demetrius..."
Another remnant of his his father, however, had engaged in Demetrius, and he did not want what she thought he did. His father had made the downstairs a twisted place. How Demetrius would blend in was convenient enough to be more than a coincidence—a gift, blindly packaged. Though lacking Aubrey's artistic inclinations, his son would never outright reject the idea of putting something where it fit. He uncovered his mouth and raised his voice on purpose, so that Deva would hear. "Fascinating!"
Kenichi stared. "That good?"
"I have not given it consideration enough to determine it as so. I just don't want Deva to—"
"Eep—!" The door hit Kenichi's back, forced open enough to let in Nitya's hand. She seized Kenichi's wrist and whipped him outside before either he or Demetrius could complete another word.
"To do that." Kenichi had left Demetrius with an uncovered smile and an embryonic laugh silently warming his throat. Cute.
Stopping for tonight before Demetrius's character is completely and fatally derailed. With what he is keeping from Kenichi, who is he, even, anymore?
edited 17th Sep '10 5:51:59 AM by harmattane
Ce ne pas un post.Dear harmattane/Affy ~
Madrugada's sister, Kharmin, here. She suggested (nay, insisted!) that I read your story today. Yes, the whole-dam-thing. ![]()
![]()
After I got through+past the first chapter (prologue?), (I, too, felt totally at sea in a world, among people, that made no sense to me (yet)) I was TOTALLY sucked into the it! Your characters are beautifully drawn (in type, pencil AND PS!) and well-rounded, and growing with the leaps and bounds that are not only to be expected at their physical age, but under the circumstance (being thrown into totally new and confusing situations) seem to be folks I can really care about.
Congratulations, my dear - this is shaping up to be a gripping tale!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Keep in mind that many people (even professors and folks with lots of so-called education) not only don't know how to tell you what it is that they "don't like", they may not even know themselves what the specific parts or pieces are that put them on edge. So, do not take it as some 'sign from the Universe' that you should stop what you're doing when someone else says they don't like it, or even 'don't get it'. It only means you're on two different pages, not that you're the one who's wrong!
Well, hell! I didn't mean to 'send' that quite yet ~
I wanted to thank you (all of you Tropers) for the moral support for Maddy in the last couple of months ~ IRL doesn't get much more real-er than when you lose both your hunny and your sister's hunny within six weeks!
Bright Blessings to you, and Affy: don't let the turkeys get you down!
Kharmin
Sorry; missed the new posts.
Thanks so much; I'll remember what you said here.
And I had no idea, Maddy. I don't want to try to say how sorry I am, because it wouldn't be adequate. If I want to do or say something, I guess my option is to keep writing. I'll do that.
My PM box is open if you just need to talk to someone, too. I owe it to you.
edited 21st Sep '10 1:28:31 AM by harmattane
Ce ne pas un post.

Kenichi's hand drifted up his neck and buried itself in his hair awkwardly. "That can't be right. You're talking about me. Any place would be safer than with—"
"You know that there actually is none," Demetrius reminded him, bringing up images of Lux II's attacking staff for both. Neither remembered that too fondly.
"—or anyone who would help us..."
"You have only me, but I am doing what I can from a distance. Would you look after him until there is a place for him in Iosethep? Unless, of course, since I have stopped looking in on you two, he has gone the way of his father and threatens yours? Do watch him closely for me; blood is blood, my dear..."
"Gods, no!" Kenichi heard his chair screech against the floor and discovered himself on his feet. "If he were to hear you say that about him...no." He weakly sat back down. He elicited not even a blink from Demetrius, however he sounded. "No, he's terrified of being anything like his father. He would never hurt me. You heard him say he wanted to be my friend—he meant it. He's never stopped using my name. Do you believe me? How do I know...?"
"Your words? Conditionally," answered Demetrius, and Kenichi prepared for anything, unable to discern what Demetrius felt by his face when he was not smiling. How ugly could his mouth be? Kenichi wanted to pull the blankets down off of it. "Your gesture? Yes." Smile. "Not something I would have expected of the Kenichi I thought I knew. I was testing you, and you passed."
Kenichi let slip a small piece of a laugh. That was right. He had surprised himself, too.
"Lux would be proud," said Demetrius. "Will you look after him while he needs it?"
"It's what I chose ages ago."
"Thank you." Kenichi listened extra closely for what expression might come out in Demetrius's voice—this he said with a little sigh, relieved. "You have all of the help I can give you."
"I'm still not sure of what you...of all people, if you understand what I mean...mean by 'help'." Demetrius paused—frustrated, Kenichi guessed. If not cornered. "I'm just doing my job."
"I do understand, and I do confess to experiencing the human burning for retribution against the archduke who killed my father—if you can believe it." Was he joking? He had tipped his head a bit at the last part, giving it a tiny flick. "When I was much younger, part of me did feel that the stress of his death had been the cause of my body's abnormalities, as my first pains did come so soon after that—in spite of comprehending full well the broken logic of it. I have wanted him to be beside me as more than a lonely brain; he was very nice all in one piece. He had a lot of nightmares, and though he asked me to sleep out of earshot of his screaming, I enjoyed sitting on his bed and talking him out of them when he woke up. The Aubrey London I remember would have returned the favor when pains kept me awake in the afternoon. Not likely talking as much, though—he never did often. When he did, he talked to me as though I were his age because he was no good at doing otherwise."
Demetrius rambled; he clearly was not accustomed enough to speaking in informal settings to know not to do that. Kenichi only puzzled out that he felt sad. "Then what? Why should I trust you?"
"If those demons had to be channeled out somewhere, toward saving an innocent is the direction I favor. I want it done." Demetrius's eyes had widened again, and his threadlike white eyebrows hardened, determined. "If you still do not trust me, how about the business I have you here for? As of late, has anyone else threatened Lux?"
"No..." Not all month, as much as Lux and Kenichi had watched. Threats had teased them, sure. They had come close, but no one ever entered the skyscraper. The security consoles may have been down, but offline alarms had been left up and running. They had not made a peep. "We've been wondering where everyone is. We got scared when the city watch surrounded the skyscraper, but they never do anything. When I go out, I don't let them see me—just in case."
"Do you use the Section Eight tunnel to leave?"
"Usually—" Seeing Demetrius's eyes widen more, Kenichi quickly added, "—it's a pretty roundabout way to get here, coming out at the opposite end of the district and all. I mean—I leave the motorcycle in there. But if the watch line is quiet, I can just walk by, and this is next door—"
"That brings me to the first thing I needed you to know a month ago—" Both of Demetrius's hands materialized on the desk in front of him, and he steepled his fingers. "Please, do not do that."
"Explain myself?"
"Sneak through the watch line. It appears you have been successful thus far, but you—and Lux—have too much to lose if you are caught."
"Do you know why the watch is there? Is it because...because I killed Adolf?" Lux had warned him.
"No, and you may stop beating yourself up for that. You had to get him first—but then, I live in Section Eight and have been conditioned into someone more defensive than average. The watch must not see you because they don't expect anyone to come out."
"Oh..." Kenichi remembered something he had heard from Tama that had made him laugh. "So they believe Lux II has gone crazy in there, too...or what?"
"Indeed. They must continue to believe it."
"Where the hell did that story come from, anyway? Heh; he's not even there—"
"Shh." Demetrius, with a painful looking lurch, leaned and covered Kenichi's mouth with his palm, barely—he only touched Kenichi's nose, but the gesture was plain. Kenichi shut up and looked Demetrius in the eyes, waiting deep inside them for an explanation. "The second thing—do not say that. Lux II's mutations have reached his brain. He is locked inside the skyscraper, a monster prowling it mindlessly. The loud noises from inside are his doing. His son's whereabouts and survival are uncertain. This is what you will perpetuate if you want you and Lux to live."
Demetrius dropped his hand from Kenichi's face, revealing a gaping mouth. "You..."
"Yes, me. There is little I can do from this room but send outside things that can be done for me. Do you see why the watch line must not see you?"
Kenichi nodded.
"That people would be scared away was what I planned—Iosethep knows to assume the worst when it comes to Langleys. That the watch would join in was my distant hope. We have all gotten very lucky: your skyscraper is a public safety hazard now. Anyone who moves closer than seventy feet from the grounds will be fined by the watch—with weaponry, they may be arrested. Anyone—" Demetrius raised that one eyebrow. "—whatever they want to do inside."
"Including...oh." A smile spread on Kenichi's face, one end and then the other, and he put it together. His hands relaxed on the arms of his chair; through them, his last fears of Demetrius left him. He wanted to hug the kid, but could not see his arms fitting around him. "Oh, wow...I see why no one has attacked..."
"Please use the tunnel. Police protection is not something you could easily get again. Not something I could get for you again."
"Damn...thanks. Lux has been real weirded out by the lack of adversaries since the doctor and—wait. The old staff knows better. And whoever read my stupid want ad."
"The ad was a lie. A ploy. No one would have come to fight the monster with you if told about the monster. The staff—they were my instigators. Iosethep believed our story because it heard from them."
Kenichi just stared.
"Kimura is my friend."
Kenichi laughed. His superior had been humorless and rigid. "Kimura has friends?"
"Not many. He does have children, and he felt very conflicted around them knowing that he was keeping them alive by working for someone evil. I offered him my ear for when he needed to explain to someone who would understand."
"But how did you convince him to protect someone evil's son?"
"Ah—remember that I archived that footage of you?"
That was the stuff of Kenichi's nightmares back when he had worked for Lux II. All of his former colleagues knew all of the stories. "You bastard!"
"Yes, most of it. Especially the end." Kenichi wished he could share the wicked smile that made Demetrius's eyes into slits. He sat on his hands to restrain himself from uncovering his mouth. "Kimura's daughter is just older than Lux; it broke him to see that they were never so different after all. He agreed to carry my directions to the rest of the staff that remained in Iosethep—fortunately for you, the least bitter of them—and they would spread to Iosethep my explanation for the lockdown."
"That's all it took?"
"No. When all else failed, I told them this—I am Demetrius London, and I think Lux is fine. That always worked."
"I can't stand it any longer." Kenichi whipped his hands onto the desk. "You want me to be comfortable with you? Then please, please let me see the rest of your face. I have got to see that smile."
It disappeared. "It would be easier if you didn't."
"Easier? Heh." Kenichi reached one finger toward the material over Demetrius's mouth. "I'll get it for you. Can I, please?"
"Are you sure you want to get that close?" This was beginning to sound familiar.
"I have seen Lux II at the peak of his curse. Even if you have tentacles for a mouth, I'm not going to fucking flinch. I owe it to you to think you're beautiful even if you have tentacles...! Pleeeeease?"
Demetrius conceded, "You are responsible." He showed nervousness just like his father had long ago, silently and without expression, looking straight ahead like a deer in headlights.
Kenichi did not see Demetrius blink once as he hooked one finger over the material and pulled it under his chin. He laughed out loud when he saw what was underneath.
Demetrius continued not to speak and not to blink.
"You're just like your father...!"
"Meaning?" Kenichi saw him pronounce the word. With a thin, well-formed human mouth under a childish button nose that went right with his eyes, both on an ordinary roundish face that had nothing on it to hide. It was better than ordinary. He did not just have nice eyes; he had a face Tama would fall for, her favorite kind.
"You look better than you think. Leave it off!"
Demetrius smiled, visibly, in his father's shy and slightly crooked way. He was thinking about it.
edited 31st Aug '10 4:51:47 PM by harmattane
Ce ne pas un post.