westfallcorndog | Annarchy and Ageswaps (For Viatorus)

Her answer gets a thoughtful "Oh..." But he's soon back to thinking, as though her question requires deep consideration. His eyebrows lift and his head tips to the side. "I don't know," he admits openly. "I've never tried going there before."

Then his frown returns and he turns his wonderings to her. "Why are you in such a hurry? "

"Because my brother needs to go through as soon as he gets here!" she shouts, exasperated at even this small amount of scrutiny. Another look behind her proves no one is here yet at least, and it gives her time to think.

"Because..." she purses her lips as she prepares a good excuse. "Because he's got a sickness, okay? And a wizard made him better for a while, but as long as we stay here the magic is going to wear off. Except I think if I can get him home, he can stay well and he doesn't have to die! But I know he's going to fight me, because he thinks he has to die. The portal has to be ready when he shows up so I can push him through and take him home!"

"Oh..." His lips and brow twist in the same way they did when he was thinking aloud. This isn't as easy as searching for memories that are strangely distant. This is... delicate. In a way he's not sure he's in the best position to help with.

"Magic is... tricky," he tries to explain. "It might wear off the moment you step through the portal. Or it might stay if you ask the wizard to make it permanent. You shouldn't really be relying on it if you're not a practitioner yourself. Perhaps it would be better if we talked with your brother first..."

Anna clenches her fists and scoffs in frustration at this mage's unwillingness to enable her plans. She holds her hand out and demands, "If you can't give me what I want, at least give me my paper gold back. There's no point in talking to my brother. I'll find someone else before he finds––!!"

She doesn't get to finish that sentence, as suddenly she's in a headlock! A boy not much older than her, maybe thirteen or fourteen, is behind her with a look of victory on his face. Anna struggles against his grip and shrieks for him to let her go, and that rude boy has the audacity to laugh!

"I knew if I stopped shoutin' your name I'd catch you!" he says with an impish smile. But then, past red-faced Anna's flailing arms, he sees something. No, someone. A face he recognizes...

"Lyall?!" Yeah, he's sitting right there at that table! The boy releases Anna so that he can wave at the bodyguard. "What're you doin' here without Viatorus? Come on over and meet my sister!"

The guard had rested in place once he saw that his hire didn't plan to move anywhere. He'd managed to pick the perfect seat to give as good a line of sight as possible while still remaining close. Being recognised and addressed by a small boy was the last thing he'd expected. He glances to an equally surprised Viatorus, who nods his permission. Slowly, the man gets up, surveys their surroundings, and then walks over.

When he gets closer he's able to speak easily in his low, rough tone. "How do you know me?"

A question which Viatorus is also curious about. Thoroughly confused, the mage stands and looks between the three of them, trying to spot the piece of the puzzle he's missing.

At Lyall's question, Harrow's first reaction is to shift his eyes to get a look at his sister. She's already disapproving, arms crossed, eyes narrowed. She's waiting to see what he's going to say and she's very ready to end him for his inevitable insolence, but at the same time she's waiting. Waiting to see what sort of explanation (or trick) he's going to concoct.

He puts his hands on his chest and says, "Lyall! You don't recognize me? I'm –"

"You can't say you're his son," Anna interrupts flatly. Harrow gasps, but she continues on. "You already used that lie on someone and I'm not going to let you embarrass yourself again by getting all sweaty and weird."

"I–I don't sweat! Don't make Lyall think I'm weird and sweaty!" Harrow says, his cheeks already reddened with the embarrassment she's 'saving' him from. "B-Besides, Lyall wouldn't fall for that! He's too smart."

Anna looks over to Lyall. She's not sure he fits the description of a man she'd consider 'too smart,' but she doesn't say it. She says instead, "How about a different stupid lie then? That you're a sunshiney person and your real name is Harrowheart?"

His expression falls and he stares grimly at his sister, who returns the exact same look to him. Neither of them have the opportunity to enjoy the adults' first reactions.

Edited 2016-08-19 03:12 (UTC)

The enthusiasm of the young boy doesn't detract from the strangeness of his words. Both Lyall and Viatorus exchange looks with each other, as if confirming that neither is following whatever it is that's going on here. That is, until a familiar name is mentioned.

"Harrowheart?" The two men speak in unison. The mage in surprise and the guard in confusion.

"But... You're... alive! And small!" Viatorus exclaims before he can help himself. He looks the boy up and down as if searching for more of an explanation.

"Sir..." The guard begins to look uncomfortable, shifting in place. "He might not be who he says he is."

This only baffles the mage who turns to Lyall, pausing a second before asking, "What reason would he have to lie?"

"I... don't know," he admits in an unhappy mumble.

Harrow breaks from silently challenging his sister only when he hears a second, strangely familiar voice. He squints up (still such a strange thing to be doing) at the bearded man that had been near them all along and has to do a startled doubletake. Then he closes one eye and raises a hand up to block out the sight of the confusing beard. Lowers the hand, raises the hand, lowers the hand...

"Viatorus?!" he asks in shock, mouth agape. And then he beams! He reaches out to lightly cuff his friend on the lower arm. "You grew a beard! You look like a Grizzly Hills logger! Who woulda thought some day you'd look manlier than me?"

Anna stands a little closer to her brother then, as if everything between them was already forgotten. She whispers to him, "Do you know this mage?"

Harrow, smiling, nods. But then... "Wait. Did you ask him to make us a portal to Azeroth?" He continues to smile until he sees how incredibly flustered that question has her.

She doesn't have to raise her voice to express her anger. "Why is this so funny to you?! At least I'm trying to do something! It's like you're not even taking this seriously!"

"I am..." he tries. "I just... I know it can't stay this way. We can't change what's going to happen."

"So you won't even try?! You're just going to ignore it until it happens again? Just like last time?!"

Harrow, if this boy really is Harrow, stares off into the middle distance blankly. When he doesn't react to her taunting Anna reaches out to push him in the shoulder. He stumbles and looks down, but doesn't reply.

She screws up her face and whispers bitterly, "You really are a coward."

Neither of them goes on to acknowledge Lyall or Viatorus. For all they're concerned, this painfully awkward exchange may as well be private.

The familiar cheer and excitement begins to register, a smile spreading slowly across the mage's face. Reuniting with his friend brings with it a wash of relief, even if they are changed. It's not like it's the first time.

Viatorus' gladness starts to fade, however, as the Harrowheart and the young girl bicker back and forth. It takes him longer than it really should for him to register that this is his sister... and that she knows he's going to die. A pang of sympathetic hurt stabs at him, making him wince. He can't even imagine what Isidor would be like if he were to die.

The young girl's outburst drags him from his thoughts. "He's not a coward," Viatorus says without thinking, and then holds out a hand to prevent any further shoving. "He's the bravest man I know."

Harrow tries at a smile for Viatorus that looks more like a wince. His sister stops what she was saying when she's reminded of Viatorus' and Lyall's presences. Her lips draw into a thin line as she thinks about what's being said and about the situation she's in now.

"Sounds like we know a very different person," she says curtly, arms crossed and eyes averted.

Harrow forces a humorless laugh. "Sisters, right?" It's a halfhearted question that sparks a scary realization. Suddenly he looks around in a panic. "S-speaking of, yours isn't here, right? She's not coming, is she?"

"I hope not," Viatorus says without thinking. He too looks around, distracted from cringing at the young girl's reply as he worriedly scans his surroundings.

"Not here yet, sir," Lyall growls, a small, wry smile playing at the corner of his mouth.

Viatorus tries to compose himself again, running a palm flat across his shirt to straighten his clothes out. "Mm. Well. Good." His eyes flicker back to young Harrowheart and his sister. He smiles at the girl and holds out a hand. "We haven't actually been introduced. My name is Viatorus Atlas Durant. Nice to meet you."

The subtleties of Lyall's comments are lost on Harrow, who has larger things on his mind as he watches Anna with some worry while she listens to Viatorus' official introduction. He mumbles something about "Should have introduced you," but he otherwise keeps back and stays quiet.

Anna looks Viatorus over well for the first time, not just as a man who was going to do a service for her but as someone who's allegedly a friend of her brother, and one close enough to judge his character. It's with some hesitance – perhaps out of shame or perhaps out of suspicion – that she offers her small hand for him to shake.

"Anna Weatherhill," she offers quietly. "I'm–" She starts to make a sound like a P, or possibly a B, but she hears the way her brother sucks in a fast breath through his nostrils and turns to see him staring with wide and desperate eyes. Her own expression softens for just a moment and she looks guilty, even remorseful.

She turns to Viatorus once again and says, "I'm his sister."

She doesn't see the way Harrowheart turns his wide-eyed stare toward the ground and rubs at his forehead with the fingertips of one hand. This has been the longest day of his life.

"Usually I'm older," she goes on to explain to Viatorus. "A mage named Doctor Hill made us look like this. My brother says he's a 'therapist,' which means he does something strange to your body and you learn a lesson from it." She glances at her brother still rubbing at his head and starts to nod. "I think he's learning something?" she says uncertainly.

Edited 2016-08-22 01:07 (UTC)

Though his face is more wrinkled and his chin now hidden, he still has those characteristically bright green eyes and the occasional fidget that make him familiar. The mage gives her hand a small shake, smiling through the awkwardness that passes between the three of them. "It's nice to meet you, miss Weatherhill."

It's clear that he's missing something, that they want to keep something from him, but it's impossible to guess what. So when he's sure they're not about to explain the meaningful looks, he continues on with what they have told him.

He doesn't quite manage to stop before he asks, "Have you?" Then he catches himself and shakes his head. "Excuse me." Energy injects itself into his expression then as he looks between the two children. "How about we all get some hot chocolate and talk for a bit?"

Harrow shifts his mouth to the side and shrugs his shoulders noncommittally when asked if he's learned anything. His hands go into his pockets and his eyes stay on the ground. "It's not just about me," he mutters under his breath.

"Hot chocolate sounds really good!" Anna says brightly. "I haven't had anything to eat since I've been here. But... You don't mind paying, Mr. Durant? Unless you're going to conjure it yourself?" Oh, she sounds so excited at that! "The only mage food I've ever had is ice, and that doesn't count! I'd love to try a mage's hot chocolate!"

Harrow puts a hand on his stomach and frowns at Viatorus, then at Lyall. He's hungry, but he's not sure he's ready to admit that.

Edited 2016-08-22 19:24 (UTC)

Oh he spots Harrowheart's quiet unhappiness, but he doesn't get a chance to say anything before Anna is babbling away excitedly. It takes him by surprise. Not two minutes ago she was suspicious of him, annoyed at him, even. Noises trip off of his tongue while he reassembles his thoughts.

"Oh, no," he half laughs. "You really wouldn't want to... Not from me. I-I'm not any good with food." He motions to the table he'd been sitting at before. "I can pay, though."

Here he looks to Harrowheart, suggesting, "Hot chocolate and some cake, maybe?"

A mage who isn't good with food? This Nexus really is a very different place from home. When Viatorus motions to the table, though, she amenably and quietly takes a seat. She's not unwilling to enjoy a little hot chocolate as she goes on a smear campaign against her brother's character.

Harrow smiles faintly at the mention of cake. "Cake sounds nice. Maybe chocolate with a pickled cherry," he whispers, and having said it a little more joy and relief comes back to his features. He follows his sister's example and takes a seat, then tries to position a chair so that Viatorus will be closer to him than to his sister. It doesn't exactly work; there's no way to be far from someone else at a café table, really.

Anna asks Viatorus, "So how do you know my brother? Are you a warmage or something?"

Edited 2016-08-22 21:18 (UTC)

Lyall slinks back to his previous seat at another table, happy to be back in his preferred role. No sooner has he settled then he's pulling out his phone to answer a call. Viatorus, meanwhile, smiles gently at Harrowheart, glad to see his friend perk up, even a little. It doesn't seem right to see him distant or disheartened.

At Anna's question he laughs before he can help himself. He shakes his head and catches a waiter's attention. "Three hot chocolates and three slices of black forest gateau please." The multi-limbed creature makes a noise (apparently in the affirmative) and wobbles off again. It's only then that he returns to the question asked of him. "I'm a scholar, not a warmage. We met here, actually." His words are accompanied by a light, nostalgic hum and then he tips his head to Anna. "He's always a terribly good friend to me."

"A scholar?" she asks, the surprise at his answer heavy in her tone. She looks between this older man and her brother with a touch of amusement, which (along with more mentions of cake) brings a small and hopeful smile to Harrowheart's face. Perhaps things are finally calming down?

"Good!" she says, laughing lightly. "You need more friends with a little knowledge. Maybe some of it'll rub off on you!"

Harrow playfully nudges her shoulder and laughs quietly. "Hey! Rude!" He's still smiling, though. "Normally it's the other way around, you know? I'm the older one who gets to rub off on him."

Anna's eyebrows rise at that news and realization. Her lips part slightly and she looks to Viatorus in a new light. She begins to smile, starts to ask a question with a little light in her eyes, but her brother, who hadn't noticed, slams his palms on the table and steals her thunder.

"Old V!" he shouts too loudly and too eagerly. "Are you just Regular V who's old, or do you know the future? You gotta tell us stuff!"

Anna lets out a hushed gasp. It wasn't the question she was going to ask, but it's an intriguing one nonetheless. She folds her hands manneredly on her lap and watches Viatorus expectantly. "Do things get better, Mister Durant?" she asks quietly, which leaves her brother nodding, his hair bobbing with the motions of his head.

"Tell us everything!" he asks with a sparkle of hope in his dark brown eyes.

Edited 2016-08-24 01:40 (UTC)

Playful jabs and laughter brings a wide smile to Viatorus' face. It strikes a chord with him, a brother and sister getting along, which shouldn't be surprising. Their energy is surprisingly difficult to keep up with, which... he supposes is due to his age. Probably.

When they do finally pause it's in anticipation of an answer that... he's not sure will be welcome. He hesitates, gaping and then humming as he chooses his answer.

"Yes, Viatorus, tell us everything," repeats a familiar, far sterner voice. How Isidor managed to sneak up on him is a mystery, but the mage feels his face go bright red as he turns around to spot his sister. Seeing him now, her head jerks back and her features spread out in surprise.

Viatorus, wincing at the initial reaction, shuffles around to face her without twisting. "Um. Hello Isidor."

A shadow looms. Isidor. Harrowheart recognizes that voice immediately and his first reaction is to hide. His shoulders rise and he pops up his collar like a turtle protected by its shell. He slides down into his chair as his face goes pallid. Anna, of course, notices this. He's afraid? Of?...

Anna scoots closer to her brother. Her instinct is to put a hand on his leg and mimic his poor attempts at hiding by sliding down her chair with him.

"Who is this?" she whispers to him.

He doesn't answer. Instead his cheeks flush darkly. He tries to stammer something out but his mouth is full of his own dry tongue. And then in an instant he's making a massive noise as he tries to clamor out of his seat.

"I- I- I go-uuaugh-g-gotta go, BYE!" He doesn't get far before Anna reaches out and grabs him by the back of his shirt.

"Don't leave me!" Anna shouts. "You coward, Harrow!"

The unexpected sight of her much aged brother distracts Isidor entirely from whatever else is around her, and whoever else. That spell is broken the moment Harrowheart makes a sudden move, however. Her gaze instantly snaps to him, subconsciously taking up a more steady stance. Children? Harrow? As in...? And an old Viatorus. Give her a minute to process this.

"What's going on here?" She asks seriously, rounding on Viatorus again.

"Doctor Hill." It's a simple explanation and one that has Isidor narrowing her eyes and tipping up her chin. He can guess what she's going to say, and decides to jump to the defensive. "He works differently to us, Isidor. It's... not really fair to hold him to our standards. We don't-"

She shuts her eyes and holds up a hand that silences him instantly. "I know. You've told me a thousand times before. That doesn't make it any less dangerous, or make me like it any more." Viatorus sags at that, but Isidor is already moving on. Her eyes flick to the two children, stopping to eye them both, but especially the boy. "New friends or old?"

Anna wastes no time in speaking. "Doctor Hill is good!" She insists in the same fervent way in which she insults her brother. "He listened to me. He's been nicer to me than most people."

She watches as Harrow sits down and proceeds to stare a hole into the table. Since it seems like her brother hasn't got anything to say she'll continue bearing the burden alone.

"He's putting us through something called therapy, me and my brother. It's to help him see things my way." She extends her hand to this very serious woman, smiles, and introduces herself. "I'm a new friend, Anna Weatherhill. My brother is an old friend. You know Harrowheart? He tells people his name is Harrowheart, anyway, because the name Mom gave him isn't good enough anymore."

His eyebrows knit together, his fingers clench, but he stays silent.

Edited (Tidied up last paragraph) 2016-08-24 21:45 (UTC)

Her eyes light up, wide and then narrow in intrigued amusement when Harrowheart is pointed out. Then the introductions are worked through with no shred of condescension. It's an echo of her own childhood that she remains entirely formal while she takes Anna's hand and gives it a firm shake. "My name is Isidor Durant. It's nice to meet you, miss Weatherhill." When she takes her hand back, she folds both of hers behind her back, restraining the smile pulling at the corner of her mouth. "I know Harrowheart. But I suppose he would be mister Weatherhill."

"Isidor." The low voice is gentle but commanding, and even though the reproachful look Viatorus gives his sister is familiar, it's more serious. More tired. She returns his expression with her own one, confusion and a half-turn of her head. Instead of explaining, or asking what she's puzzled over, he gestures to the table. "Would you like to join us, then? We're having hot chocolate and cake."

The second before she actually accepts his offer is more a statement of her displeasure than any hesitation. She sits next to her brother and folds her arms. "Are you babysitting them?"

Anna sees that look in Isidor's eye. She can work with this, yes. Yes she can. After Isidor takes her seat she folds her hands atop the table and sits up very straight.

Harrow winces when Isidor calls him 'Mister Weatherhill.' His cheeks are still hot, and when he speaks his voice is a raw-throated whisper. "Please call me Harrowheart," he asks as humbly as he can.

"We aren't being babysat," Anna says quickly after. Let's all move past what Mr. Weatherhill has to say. "Normally we're thirty. My brother says Mr.Durant is normally younger. That makes you the proper age, right?" Her accent isn't as pronounced as her brother's, whose own seems to be lightened by the change in his age.

"Are you a scholar too? A mage, like your brother? You look like how I imagine a Dalaran enchantress would look. Like a high elf, without the ears. Maybe it's the eyebrows."

"She doesn't know what an elf looks like," Harrow barely whispers.

This seems to surprise Anna, who looks to Isidor to see her reaction. How could a person not know what an elf looks like?

"I can make an educated guess," Isidor is quick to respond, perhaps a touch hotly. "I am a mage, but I'm not a scholar." Her eyes swivel to Viatorus and then off him just as quickly, folding her hands on lap. "I'm Viatorus' patron." A smile tugs at her lips. "A bit like his babysitter."

"I'm not that difficult," Viatorus protests. The sudden challenging expression and deep breath as Isidor prepares to launch into a spiel gets him to hastily recant. "Well, not overly so."

He's saved by the waiter who arrives with three of the most elegant hot chocolates ever seen, carefully spread cream and chocolate shavings on top, and three generous slices of gateaux.

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Lyall, the gods are watching you be a catty b-word!

It's ok, gods don't pay the rent

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