Here Comes the Rain Again [ closed ]

[oversight]

Who: John Blake & Co.
When: Post event #17 - Epulum
Where: Free Cities
What: Following the celebration-turned-investigation, Blake returns to the Free Cities to find Norman Jayden is missing. While presumed to have been sent home, Blake doesn't find himself entirely convinced, especially with the change in weather...
Warnings: N/A

Comments

@ theidlemaiden

[oversight]

"Hey, Hil." Blake's appearance comes without announcement. In the doorway, he's appears like a wraith, his steps turned silent as an effect of his general emotional state. "You got a sec?" While asking, the wind howls behind him, sweeping sand across the threshold. It's rained off-and-on since their return from Nocwich and when there isn't a downpour, the gusts toss the earth about leaving a fine dust to be disturbed later.

With some hesitation, Blake enters and shakes some sand out of his hair with a spare hand. He's gripping a letter in the other hand, crunched parchment fighting for space in his hand with the watch Hilda will recongnize as the one she had given to Jayden. It's probably pretty obvious what's happening here, even if Blake's hardly telegraphing it. He's tried to keep a top on his worries, his concerns, his frustration, his hurt, but Hilda's always been one to see right through it.

[theidlemaiden]

The last place she expects to see Blake is on the doorstep of the shop she and Jesper had started. Not because he's unwelcome but because of how unexpected it is for anyone to be out in this haywire weather they had been saddled with. The thought might seem hypocritical considering where they are, but she had already been resolutely determined to stay in whatever shelter she wandered into until the weather cleared up.

And besides, she needed to make sure that their precious storefront was well taken care of and boarded up.

A hovering plank is nearly dropped when he appears. Surprise turns to worry seeing the expression on his face. Worry turns to a flicker of sadness and understanding when she spots the glinting metal and letter clutched tight in his fist.

"For you? Always." But that goes unsaid. She's quick to shoulder the door closed before leading him a little further ways into the shop towards a seating area they used for consultations.

[oversight]

Hilda wrestling with the door gives Blake enough time to shake off some of the rigors of the weather, doing what he can to right himself without fussing too obviously. He feels ready to blow over — not a new feeling — but having fought the wind the whole way, it's almost like even the solid ground is unbalanced. It gives a swaying to the world that he's happy settles once he finds a seat by Hilda.

"Jayden—" The name feels like it wants to stick in his throat. He reaches, taking Hilda's hand and slipping the watch into her palm. "Norman says goodbye." Not in so many words or even those words, but that he thought enough to write things down, to think of them both, is testament enough and proof that he cared.

He has the letter, which he sets down on the chair next to Hilda in order to cup her hand into both of his own. He hates that this is what's brought them together again, especially here in such a special place, but Jayden's sudden departure demands nothing less than expediency for fear of missing a chance to say something himnself.

[theidlemaiden]

The consultation area is cozy and just as bright as the rest of the store. The fire burns in the fireplace filling the space with warmth that she's suddenly grateful for as she settles into the chair.

As ingrained as pleasantries are in her, there's no room for them today. Blake gets right to the point, the warmed metal of the watch he'd held in his hand gives off the phantom impression that their friend had recently worn it. As if Blake had run into him not so long before arriving here. Hilda feels her heart sink as she stares down at the watch face that she knew well because of how much time she had spent searching for the perfect one.

Thankfully it's covered up by Blake's hands. There's a moment's silence as she lets his words settle on her shoulders before she stares up back at him.

"How did you find out?"

[oversight]

Meeting eyes, he can see how Hilda is ready to be blown away, wavering like a dandilion seed over this realization. He feels himself that he hasn't stopped swirling in the wind since he'd started reading. The emotions want to crawl up through his throat at the subtle crinkling of Hilda's forehead, that indication of a harder struggle than she lets on. They're so alike. Hell, all three of them, Jayden included, and it probably doesn't end there.

"Went by his place, but I had a feelin'..." When all this weather had started, Blake had been certain it was thanks to Jayden. He'd seen such bluster before, hadn't he? And it wasn't until Blake had made certain the Horizon was devoid of Jayden's space that he was able to trust the note at all. There are so many way it could all be faked (with magic, specificially), but without any solid evidence, Blake might as well be ranting like a lunatic over such things.

He clears his throat. "He doesn't have much. Mostly stuff we gave him. I've got his gloves — ones I've made him — but the rest— I-I don't know who gave him what. A waterju— a, uh, a canteen, and a, um. Worm-thing? Fuzzy worm thing?" And a daggar, which Blake isn't sure what to think about. Should he keep it? He's been told a dozen times he needs a weapon, but then again, maybe it means something to someone.

He squeezes her hand like an apology. He thought he could keep it together through this.

[theidlemaiden]

Hilda had only asked because she, along with any of the Summoned that had been here last year, still remembers what it had been like to discover people slowly going missing. But she knows in her heart, can see it in the way Blake carried himself, that this a different kind of departure. It's so stupid that the mention of the worm – the one that she had seen Jayden playing with in the hospital upon his return from the pit – is what makes her tear up. 

She hadn't known him well at the time, but that hadn't mattered then and it didn't matter now. Seeing him there sitting with the silly toy had filled her with such relief that it feels so palpable even to this day. To think back on the times they'd had together and know that she might not see him again is similar to the hollowness in her heart that she'd felt after Petra had left. Abraxas, she was realizing, was exposing them all to a particular brand of loss that she hoped no one close to her would ever have to feel. And it hurts to see how hard the man before her is trying to hold himself together - for her? For himself?

Allowing the watch to rest in her lap she pulls Blake close as if that would stop him from blowing away in the storm that had made its way inside. Her voice is quiet, betraying her own watery voice, "You don't have to figure all of that out alone, you know. I'm here - if you want my help."