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 Posted: Thu May 11, 2017 12:14 pm
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Rabbit held his sister's laptop clutched to his chest like a squirming baby, even though it was not alive nor moving on its own. He was pretty sure he had more important things to do than dropping it off for her, but he was determined to keep up appearances, and he could hardly do that if he was sitting around the house flipping out about the end of the world. He had to act natural, and that meant computer repair.
In front of him hopped his children, a pair of short, giggly figures in floor-length, hooded robes that looked like they were left over from Halloween. They were perfectly normal. Nothing to see here.
"Earth," Neverain said.
"Air," replied Sywyly.
"The casters have got to be protected. If someone comes in and spills blood all over everything again, Dad could die."
"He's not gonna die, he's a..." Sy leaned in close to her brother, lowering her voice to a whisper, "...noble. I think breathing's more important than protection. And they've got 'til next month anyway. That's, like, forever. He can get an earth thing next."
Rabbit loosened one of his hands from around the laptop and patted each siren's shoulder in turn. "Inside voices." There was no reason why everyone in town had to know their business, especially not in the freakin' computer store. He pushed into Broken Circuits with a smile on his face, glancing around for someone who looked like they knew what they were doing.
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Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 10:49 pm
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Perfectly normal was a relative statement to the person involved. In the last couple of weeks, it had become clear to Erin that normal was not something that Ashdown had. Between finding out quite a lot about the changing of the world, the weird letter about remaking the Charter (whatever the heck that was), and an increasing sense that she either had no significance or far more than she realized, Erin just attempted to keep her head down and do her work.
That said, Rabbit and his perfectly normal children seemed, well, perfectly normal when they walked in the door. The robes were different, but honestly, some people liked wearing cosplay or outfits outside of Halloween or convention season so Erin hardly paid mind to it. Besides, her focus was the laptop in his arms, not the hooded kids.
"Welcome to Broken Circuits. What brings you in today?" she asked, making a mental stock of the current queue. Four virus removals, one hardware install, and the insufferable dead piece of junk on the shelf. Good to know.
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Posted: Mon May 15, 2017 9:14 am
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She chuckled awkwardly, trying to hide her sudden nervousness with the two kids intently staring at her. Particular, those two. Erin smiled at Rabbit, fully engaged in Customer Service(tm) mode, and spun the laptop around to look at it. She lifted the lid and turned it on, leaving a hand lingering on the keyboard in case the unit tried to instantly overheat on her.
"Not a problem, shouldn't take too long to diagnose," she said, reaching under the counter for one of their catch all "Diagnositic Tools" flash drives. So far so good though, the unit boot up at least. Better than most computers that came into the shop honestly.
"You got some cute kids there. Yours?" she asked, making small talk as she plugged in the usb and booted up the diagnostic tool. He looked the right age-ish for it, but you never knew these days.
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Posted: Mon May 15, 2017 2:58 pm
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Posted: Tue May 16, 2017 8:06 pm
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Odd names. Actually, relatively weird, but his name was Rabbit after all so she couldn't really give him too hard of a time for it. Weird names seemed to be the standard in Ashdown these days anyway. She glanced down at the laptop and pushed the diag tool through the next few steps with a quick flick of her fingers.
"Nice to meet you! Erin Barabutes here, though my name ta-- which I never wear, so yeah hi I'm Erin," she said awkwardly, laughing sort of weirdly at herself.
His question brought her attention back to him with a frown and Erin tilted her head to the side. She squinted, really looking at him, and tapped a finger to her chin in thought. You know.... now that she looked at him, he did look familiar, from before her memory went to s**t.
"Um... perhaps? My memory sort of broke after... Mayish last year? Maybe? And uh, things.... changed, so if you knew me before then , then you probably do?" If that wasn't the most awkward, most roundabout way to reference the making of the Charter and the world imploding, she didn't know what else to add to it.
Smerdle she's a long term resident of awktown, rabbit don't worry xD
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Posted: Fri May 19, 2017 2:51 pm
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"Oh! Well, I'm sorry about your memory?" Rabbit said, eyes widening a smidge as he stood up taller. That was very telling, but he didn't think it got him any closer to figuring out why she was so familiar. At least he was about 89% sure she was magical now, which helped with... everything really.
"Your memory was weird last year too, Dad," Neverain said helpfully.
"Yes," Rabbit agreed. "Just before Christmas." He didn't like to think about it that way, but from the sirens' point of view, he was a different person entirely. At least he could comfort himself with the knowledge that they knew why, but it was still a little weird.
"Did you get a letter from a fetch?" Sy asked Erin. Not only was she still staring, now she was also smiling.
Rabbit nudged her shoulder with his elbow. "Don't be creepy."
"But... purple hair," she whispered. He didn't have the heart to tell her it probably wasn't natural.
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Posted: Sat May 20, 2017 10:12 pm
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"A fetch is a servant, sort of," he replied. "An assistant." He could have gone on, told her all about how he'd killed one, how another served him these days, about nobility and the court, about magic and his kids and...
That would probably be way too much to take in from some guy who'd just stopped by to have a laptop serviced.
Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on perspective, the sirens weren't willing to give up on the topic at hand.
"We need to get an Air item," Sy said before her brother could interject with talk of whatever Earth thing he wanted to get. "From the list. There's a big... magic spell..." She whispered again. "...going on soon and they need help to cast it. That's what the letter's for."
Rabbit went from mildly irritated to mildly concerned to mildly resigned as she spoke, ending with a shrug that was as mild as the rest. "Yes, that's all technically true. But you shouldn't be, like, forced to get involved. It's a lot to wrap your head around."
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Posted: Mon May 22, 2017 2:37 pm
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Rabbit grinned, happy that the... pushier of his charges hadn't scared the woman off. Erin put it rather well, if with a little more enthusiasm than he might have, considering what they'd face if they messed up.
"It is kind of exciting," he admitted. "Having purpose and meaning." He had been looking for his for so long that he hadn't even recognized it when it had snuck up on him.
"Raspberry pies?" Neverain asked, quirking his head to one side.
"It's a computer thing," Rabbit replied. Or at least he assumed it was, taking into account where they were and the fact that she had mentioned wire. Pies with wires didn't sound very appetizing at all. "And a fan is a good idea, I'm just wondering if it should be more somehow. Like a really fancy hand fan you have to wave around to use, or a whole line of the ones from a computer, just whirring away, all intimidating. Or invigorating, maybe. The note said 'vitality'. So I guess it should make them want to stand up and cast." He chuckled. "The submerging in magic though... yeah, I agree. We should probably do that over there." Hopefully she knew what Over There even was.
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