Looking Glass

[Sierra]

Elyse helped the naked man to the fire. It was probably still shock but why would a man be naked in the middle of the Russian winter. She was about to get up to go get some more wood, but the fire roared to life and Sierra looked up at the magic man with a frown. A little warning would have been nice. Sierra barely noticed that the air was warmer around them. A trick of the mind, it couldn't be more magic.

The naked man asked about civilization and a vehicle Sierra frowned at the comment, no transportation was close, and he didn't look like he was going to be able to walk much. They could make a litter for him. It might be their best option at present.

Sierra pointed in the direction of Moscow, "The city is 4 kilometers along the river."
Sierra looked around gathering her bearings and calling upon the wolves to locate the nearest trafficked road. She smiled when they gave her a general direction. Sierra pointed "There is a highway about 1 kilometer in that direction."


The man in black was finally moving and now pushing his certain brand of hospitality upon the naked man demanding who he was and what he was doing here. Did any of it really matter? Even if he was a runaway criminal bent on murdering young kids, did it really matter? He was clearly not equipped to be standing in the cold wet snow especially naked.

It still was a curiosity. How did someone become naked in the woods and not know it? A frat prank gone wrong? He didn't look too overly disheveled, not like he'd been in the woods a long time. The man's skin was only slightly scratched, and he still smelled of fine bath soaps, clearly not in the woods a long time. He didn't reek of human sweat and dirt, he was relatively clean, almost liked he'd popped into existence. The wolf images came to mind and Sierra shuddered, magic...

[Elyse]

Elyse had questions for the man, but she had wanted to make sure he wasn't going to die first. She had almost forgotten that the other man here was a godling until she felt the air warming around them. She looked at him and gave him a nod of appreciation. She still wasn't sure what to think of him. He was rough, but between that and building the fire, he was thoughtful. She couldn't tell if he was one of the evil ones or not.

The wolves were still sending images that didn't make sense. It had something to do with their nude companion, but she couldn't make it out. One of these days she would get used to their methods of communication, but she sent them confusion. She understood that they were trying to communicate, but not what. At least they would know she wasn't ignoring them. Was it a warning?

The man in black asked their companion the question that was on Elyse's mind. Why was he here? Why go around naked in the Russian winter? The man was still a little rough, but straightforward. Elyse guessed she could appreciate that. So far their new companion seemed okay, but she would keep an eye on him.

Elyse spoke quietly, but loud enough to be heard. "Was this some sort of prank?"
She asked. It could be the only logical explanation, but then again, she was surrounded by illogical things. People who could talk to wolves and a man that could warm the air and stoke a fire with a thought. Who knew?

Elyse pulled out the beef jerky and offered it to the little crew. "Anyone hungry?"
She portioned some out to any who would want any, taking a small piece for herself. "My name is Elyse by the way."
She was just being polite with the offer of her name, but she wouldn't introduce Sierra - that was up to her if she wanted to.

[Jaxen Marveet]

As he huddled low, the soft down of the girl's coat took the sting out of the cold blanching his skin. He was rather content to sit and shiver himself warm, but the presence of power crawled across his senses like clouds obscuring the sun. His chin lifted from his chest as he watched the work of an Ancient among them. The guy was another ancient. Was this why Sora put him here? Because he had the power to keep him alive? It was certainly warmer, but Jaxen might have attributed that to the donated clothing. Two skinny girls were sure to get cold quickly without their stuff. Jaxen didn't acknowledge the gift of warmth or fire other than to not comment on his general gratitude, "Thanks,"
.

Otherwise, food might not have been on the top of his priority list, but Jaxen accepted the piece of strangely preserved meat, sniffed it warily and popped it in his mouth. It was salty. "Mmm, chewy,"
he said, licking the flavor off his lips. So the pretty one was Elyse. His gaze flicked to her more intense friend. Now that he was shaking a little less terribly, he managed a brow lift and eye-prodding like it might pull her name out of her too. The other guy, whose name Jax didn't have either was sure to be something dark and ominous, like Lazarus or Raven, or on the other hand, completely ordinary. Maybe he was a Dan. Either way, 'Dan' finally asked the obvious question. Elyse didn't seem like the most clever of the three, so no surprise she didn't pose it. Her angry friend was probably too busy flicking brooding gazes at the trees around them like she saw ghosts hovering between the branches to bother. He had to think of an explanation quickly. He could simply keep his mouth shut, but when did he ever keep quiet?

"A prank is close enough,"
he led but let sad, heartfelt eyes slide between the two girls as he went on. "I was kidnapped. Drove out here and well, I won't go into details. But I got away."
The girls' gloves stretched tight across knuckles as he huddled down into the coat. "I'm Jaxen Marveet,"
he added, watching their expressions like they'd just discovered a celebrity. Which they had. Anyone that walked around Moscow had to know the name, and if they watched television in the slightest, recognize his face. But knowing his father, or more likely, his mother, there was likely a reward for information leading to his whereabouts. With the half meter of snow on the ground, they were in the thick of winter and he had to have been gone at least a week.

"Anyone have a Wallet I can borrow? Probably be best if I call for a ride."
He looked between the three. "As you can gather, I uh...seemed to have lost mine,"
he searched out angry girl's eyes and winked, but his train of thought wandered as he peered into them. "Wow, you have incredible eyes. I've never seen that color before, and believe me, I usually see the first thing all the girls are wearing"




[[Edited to add 1st paragraph. Forgot to react to the major thing of a channeler among us.]]


Edited by Jaxen Marveet, May 17 2015, 10:24 AM.

[Elias Donovan]

As Elias previously consumed the now infamous tuna, he had no interest in jerky. He declined with a wave of the hand.

He moved closer to the fire himself since the warm bubble of air had dissipated. Elyse introduced herself, and Elias almost forgot how they treated him before the naked guy showed up. She reminded him of Sarah, the good and the bad. He looked away. He had more important matters to puzzle out than a random girl.

The name Jaxen Marveet meant nothing to Elias, although the man seemed to suggest that it should. If he was an actor or athlete, Eli was oblivious. If he was someone important to government, neither did he recognize. They learned the names of Custody leaders in high school, but of the few he recalled, none were related to a Marveet. Otherwise, he'd not been in Moscow long enough to absorb news of Custody celebrities, even in passing. He couldn't care less. He barely learned the names of people he saw on a daily basis.

More interestingly, Jaxen was kidnapped. A suspicious coincidence that someone obviously in the public eye was left for dead along the river. Was something meant to kill him? Or was he some kind of bait to lure something out of the water? Either question felt like a dead end. Eli had been powercrafting for a while today and not so much as a ripple disturbed the river's surface. He went to pull out his uncle's wallet to check for activity as Jaxen asked for one.

He sighed and brought it out. "Here,"
he offered the device. "Just.. be careful with it."
He added, tone stern. It was clearly a different grade wallet than the typical guy on the street might carry. More importantly, it was his only link to his uncle's work. Until Victoria University discovered the account and deactivated it, Eli depended on the technology to find the reason his uncle was murdered.

[Sierra]

Sierra shook her head at the audacity of some people, to kidnap and disrobe a man. Though the man still held whatever dignity he could. Sierra recognized the name, he looked like he rather expected the name to incite something at least. But beyond the fact that the man was a minor celebrity among the locals Sierra knew little of the man he claimed to be. And in his current state, it was hard to remember forgotten pictures on the tabloids on newsstands she had passed months ago.

Jaxen asked after a wallet, to which she would have provided had she owned one. The only technology she owned was that of her digital camera. But it was his comment about her eyes that made Sierra blush and avert her gaze. She couldn't explain it. But he assumed it was cosmetic in nature, most people did. Sierra muttered, "Thanks. Let's not tell the other girls about it, if you don't mind. I'd prefer to remain just that much different."
She smiled through her lie but golden eyes could be very dangerous for any man or woman trying to sport the colored contacts. She offered her name, "I'm Sierra."
She was rather certain under any other circumstances she'd not have been noticed by the elite of the elite, and certainly not if she were wearing her colored contact lenses.

The man in black offered up his wallet to which Sierra was surprised, he'd not been overly helpful up to this point. Even if he were to manage a ride he would still need to travel to the road. Unless of course his fame and fortune brought with it helicopters and pilots at a moments notice to pull him from such miserable circumstances. And Sierra had no doubt now, that was more than likely exactly what he was going to do. Call daddy for help... To be rich and famous.

[Elyse]

Elyse had heard the man's name and a flicker of recognition entered her eyes. She wasn't from Moscow, but many in the CCD had heard of the Marveets. Rich and powerful family...suitable for ransom, but apparently his kidnappers hadn't gone for that.

The man asked for a wallet - likely to call his family - as Elyse tried to think of a way to get the man back to the city without him getting cold again. Hopefully someone could pick him up. Elyse was surprised at the godling offering up his. It seemed that underneath that dark exterior was a good man and a story. She noticed the wallet handed to the mysterious stranger. It looked pretty high tech - definitely moreso than hers was.

Elyse had little to say as the newcomer flirted with Sierra and for a moment, Elyse wished she would have had her contacts out and he would have noticed her eyes too. Had she not seen the man naked perhaps she could have kept that urge down, and thoughts came unbidden to her mind. She quickly subdued them. She hadn't been intimate with anyone since she found out she was wolfkin - and she did what she had to to keep that secret from unfriendlies. She looked back down, checking Jaxen's feet again to hide the momentary blush that came to her face.

[Jaxen Marveet]

Jaxen turned the Wallet over in his hands as he accepted it. "This is nice,"
he nodded, impressed.

He noticed the date as soon as it powered to life. "SHIT! Is that the date?"
His jaw dropped as he sought the faces of these random people, like they might be playing some elaborate prank on his misfortune. "Three months! I've been gone three months?"
He stared at the screen like it might change by the force of his stare alone. It didn't. Tarin said time flowed differently in his world. He wasn't joking. What had been a few hours for Jaxen translated to months.

He found the account he needed and called. Stanislav answered. The thick-voiced Moscovian was his father's personal assistant. Not unexpected that he would answer Scion's private line from a strange number. Jaxen was surprised they answered at all.

"Uhh, It's Jaxen,"
he responded to the demand on the other side of the line. There was silence for a few moments, but Jaxen's tone changed slightly in the response on the other side. "Yeah I'm okay enough. Could use a bit of a rescue here."
He forwarded his location, seemingly in the middle of no where. "Oh, and bring some clothes. I seem to have... lost mine."


He returned the wallet to its owner then, assumed they listened to the conversation, and shrugged.

"Looks like the cavalry's on its way."
He grinned at the pair of ladies, settling finally on Sierra and her sun-flecked eyes. "Looks like we've got a secret, then. I won't tell. Cross my heart."
His grin implied that she owed him.

He held her gaze a few moments longer, but finally turned to Elyse. Obviously she was the quiet one of the pair. It would take some work to draw her out of her shell, but looks like Jax had some time to kill. "So how do you three know each other?"
They seemed like the odd grouping, and none of them particularly outdoorsy.

[Elias Donovan]

Throughout high school, even the brief stint in college, there was no shortage of jocks and show-offs, but this Jaxen guy was unlike anyone he'd ever met. Elyse and Sierra were eating out of the palm of his hand, and even Eli found himself wanting to laugh at his jokes. How did Jaxen do it?

Eli never commented on his thoughts. In fact, he felt his expression flatten as Jaxen finished his conversation. He snatched back his uncle's Wallet when Jaxen was finished with it and quickly returned it to an inner pocket of his coat.

Should he start with the story of how he met the girls? That they met over a can of tuna and shared values? Either way, it looked like he wasn't going to get out of having to share his own name. "We met over a can of tuna and Sierra's good aim."
His glance flashed across three faces. "Elias Donovan,"
he told them.

[Sierra]

The man made her blush at every turn, his comment indicated she owed him something for not telling others. Surely he didn't imply that, what use would it be, she was nothing. She let the thought go, there were other things to worry about.

Three months. Sierra couldn't help the response. "You've been out here for three months?"
She laughed, "What did you escape from, some posh five star resort where your kidnappers kept you? You smell as fresh as someone who showered only just this... "
Sierra clamped her mouth shut the moment she realized what she was saying. What the hell! She was giving away far too many secrets to these two men. Far too many, her golden eyes being the least of her worries.

Sierra reached out for the calm of the wolves, and she only found the energetic sendings of the pup she'd met before, he was still warning her with images of men and snakes popping into the opening. Sierra laughed, "It's not like you can just pop out of thin air into a forest."
But why couldn't he? Mr. Donavan had walked across the water... Why couldn't he just pop into existence like some magician on stage?

Elias had answered his question, yet another secret revealed. The shot was near impossible for someone without her enhanced sight or her honed archery skills, but when you live in the middle of nowhere for as long as she had, you learn a few esoteric things. Bows had been her second favorite thing to shoot, her camera being the first. As if the comment reminded her, Sierra unstrung her bow and wound the string back to its spool in her pocket, it was idle work for idle hands while they discussed the newness of their meetings. "We've only just met, this river seeming to be a beacon of sorts."

[Elyse]

Something now struck her as odd about the newcomer Jaxen - not that showing up in a forest naked wasn't odd. His story just didn't add up and the way he mentioned Sierra having a secret, just didn't fit. Three months - what kidnapper would keep someone for three months - and even for a prank. "Three months? What kind of kidnapper would do that and then dump you in the middle of nowhere naked?"
The sentence just came out.

Images of men and snakes popped into an opening were being sent by a wolf pup. Image of his name was a curious wolf getting to close to a beehive - Stinging Nose. Elyse resisted the urge to laugh at that - poor little guy.This man though - had something to do with snakes?

Sierra mentioned smell - a subtle reminder to herself to be careful. Poor girl didn't have contacts in so was attracting attention. Slight jealously continued to gnaw at her mind at the attention the newcomer was giving, but she held back. Nothing would happen anyways.

Elias introduced himself and said how they met, and Elyse chimed in. "I met Sierra and Elias while on a walk."
She didn't mention that Elias had walked on water.

Despite finding Jaxen attractive, Elyse was wary of the man. He was lying to them somehow, she just didn't know how or what to ask.

((Sorry about the wait ))
Edited by Elyse, Jun 1 2015, 01:07 PM.