Theus' home thread

[Theus]

Theus bade Synth, the boys, and the misunderstood pony farewell before navigating his way through the cluster of impractically spaced alleyways. His destination lay somewhere between the limits of Old prime and the merchant district vertically displaced from the rest of its surroundings by a stairwell that led some twenty feet down to a large door.

The door itself stood out for two reasons. The first, that it must have at one time appeared outlandishly ornate before wear and tear had rendered it comparatively dull to look at. And the second, that the door obviously came from somewhere else by the roughly hewn appearance of the stone frame that surounded it. The door bore a sign that simply said "Herschy's".

Entering the establishment that was arranged more like a cozy living room than a store front, Theus was emediately circumnavigated by Wobbles, the peg-legged calico cat. The handicapped feline darted in a mysteriously swift and nimble fashion through the entrance way the moment it spanned the width of his head and could not be seen or heard but for the sound of the bell affixed to his collar dissappearing off into the distance.

"Useless!" The word travelled the length of the stairwell in a jesting voice. Standing there infront of Theus was old man Herschel, barely the image of a geriatric person as far as mannerisms were concerned. "Now that cat's gunna be scratching at the door in the middle of the night... anyway... money?", as he finished he wore a childlike look of expectation on his face which quickly eroded as Theus was about to reply. "... No money?", Herschel was a marvellous reader of expressions, having a wider range of them than anyone else Theus knew, or perhaps it was Theus' bloody brow that tipped him off.

"I'm afraid I had another run in with those fine gentlemen looking for the special discount, but luckily I was nearly run over by..." At that moment Theus was cut off.

"I'll defenestrate the lot of them! I'll make them wear long underwear made of eyelashes! I'll... fortunately ran over you say... makes perfect sense." Herschel retired his peculiar vengeful thoughts until Theus could provide an explanation.

Theus paused before continuing. "... Nearly run over by some startlingly dressed courier boys driving a carriage drawn by a significantly mal-adjusted pony, who had the decency to lend me a ride back."

"Hard to find decent ponies these days... But enough of this banter! Overlooking for now the fact that if ever I come across these young lads I'll feed them to a swarm of dietarily confused butterflies, I have a completely different assignment for you involving the arrival of a certain topographically challenged aquaintance of mine who's bringing his daughter into the city..." Herschel paused for a moment and then continued, "I need you to intercept them before they become lost to the twisting sprawl of despair and bring them here... but not looking like that."

[Next post reserved for Luci.]

[Luci]

Luci rode horseback for what seemed like weeks, but it was only a day or so that she endured what seemed to be a long stretch of barren land. The half elven girl sat with her arms around her father's waist, who sat as tall and as chipper as the dawn before, with a brown cloak draped over her back, and her face rested against his back. There was much discussing going on during the travel, the father and daughter joked and told stories back and forth, and when the talking stopped, Luci listened to her father sing in old elvish, the language he spoke when he privatley discussed matters with Mother, as if Luci didn't understand.

When Luci said goodbye to Mother and Isaac, Mother was in silent tears, but she was happy. She gave Luci a silver locket with a family picture inside for goodluck, and good memory, knowing the girl wouldn't be back for quite some time. When Luci said goodbye to Isaac, he had been knawing on a candy on a stick, and took it out right as she picked him up to hug him, and stuck it to her face. Luci put that the stick on the chain as well as the locket, and finally said her farewell.

Luci was in tears the first few hours of the trip, until she fell asleep for the first time. The most recent time however, was the first nightfall, and the girl awoke to the sound of cowbells. Luci's pointed ears twitched and she sat up immediatley, the brown cloak sliding off of her back, revealing comfortable daytime clothes. She was wearing her hair up as usual, with a conservetive black shirt that covered most of her neck, and all the way to her thumbs. Though she shirt clung comfortably to her, the pants that she chose were second hand from her father that were ripped just below her knee, mid shin for father, and was held up by a thin leather strap around her hips.

"Where are we?" She said urgently as her curious eyes darted from one area to the next. She saw hundreds of merchant carts, all lined up along the sides of a dirt path. The smell of cattle and dust filled her nose imediatley, causing her to cough a little bit, but she didn't take her eyes away even for a second.
"Are we in the city? Father are we here? Is this it? Is this where I'm staying? There's so many people.." She shot out one word after the other as she wriggled around behind father. She was about to say more as she stood up suddenly on the hide of the horse, but Father grabbed her ankle and shoved it forward, sending her back on her bottom.
"Calm down, Luci" He said with a chuckle.
"This is in fact Alleria Prime."

Luci beamed, as she looked from side to side again. She spotted a group of several scanty looking men who were staring hungrily at the horse and it's cargo, Luci rose her hand to wave but Father quickly pulled it down.
"Ignore them, they're all over the city. Don't even look at people you don't know."
Luci glanced back, and then quickly hid her eyes with her hand.

Another 15 minutes or so went by until Father finally slowed down to a stop.
"Are we here?!" Luci exclaimed, and suddenly flew off the horse, and beginning turning in circles looking around for the building she was about to enter.
"which is it? They all look.." She turned around, spotting a few mudhouses, cottages, and storefronts. "They all look different."

Father laughed again as he rose his long left leg slowly off the back of the horse, and dropped down. He pulled a few baby carrots from his long coat pocket, which he wore despite the humidity, and fed them to the light brown colored mare. He began tying his long dark hair back, and adjusted his glasses, pushing them up his slender nose.

"Come on child, this way" He said, grinning as Luci came trotting up in her sandals beside him. He directed them over to a path that would be walked, up to their destination.
"We're still not there?" Luci asked as she continued looking around.
"Just a little further." Father replied
"What was the man's name again?"
"His name is Herschel, but I believe his boy Theus will be meeting us before we get there."

[Theus]

Theus sat by the edge of the fountain waiting for the arrival of Herschel's aquaintance with a bandage firmly affixed to his forehead in such a way as to displace his quaff in an undesirable manner.

As he sat uncomfortably on the stone surface he kept his mind occupied by rolling a coin between his fingers, something he wasn't very good at whatsoever. Occasionally he'd glance over his shoulder at the coins on the bottom of the fountain attempting to estimate their value as translated into bakery fresh cinammon rolls. Theus was hungry.

His task was very simple. All that it required was for Theus to remain at the fountain when Herschel's friend Elaethin arrived so that Theus could be identified and approached, but unfortunately this implied that Theus had to remain sitting for several hours as there was no telling when the man would arrive. Combined with Theus's mounting appetite and the blistering sun the task became at the very least, jolly inconvenient.

'Several hours' later as he lay languishing in the sun on the fountain's edge Theus was summoned from his revery by a sharp jab to his stomach. "Oof", was his retort, as his eyes opened suddenly.

[Luci]

It wasn't very long before Luci and her father arrived at a square clearing, where off a few hundred yards away was a fountain. People came and go still, bustling around, ignoring the image of a man, relaxing on the edge. Elaethin reminded Luci to stay close as they passed through with the horse, and when they reached the fountain, father smiled and tilted his head.

As he strode up he took the long wooden bar on the side of the horse's saddle, that kept the bags from slumping down together, keeping balance, and reached forward, poking the young man in the stomach.
The boy reacted suddenly.

"Sorry there," Elaethin said with a slightly amused smile. "Didn't mean to startle you, Theus." He turned towards Luci for a moment, who had her head tilted to the side, her upper lip raised a bit and her eyes squinted, and then turned back to their guide.
"My name is Elaethin, and this is my daughter Luci, we've come to stay with you and Herschel." He suddenly changed direction of his sentence and held out his hand, handing the bar to Luci.
"Can I help you up?"

[Theus]

"Much obliged... once you help me up I can help you onward in return", Theus offered his hand which was recieved in the firm grasp of the man who stood over him. As he was being pulled to his feet he continued, "the path gets a bit tricky from here on, but...", he trailed off. "Oh... I seem to be a bit light headed..." Having regained his feet a moment earlier he fell stiff as a board onto the cobble stone ground below.

Bolting upright once again before assistance could be offered for a second time, Theus explained, "head rush... so, shall we be moving along now?"

Leading them through the nebulous web of back alleys Theus could see the look of comprehension on Elaethin's face. One of the greatest difficulties encountered while trying to find one's way around the district was the fact that many of the construction plans were so faithfully duplicated that landmarks were difficult to spot. Eventually they came to an avenue that led to the twenty foot stairwell which in turn led to what must be the worst store location in the entire merchant district.

Theus led them inside where he bade them to remain in the living room while he summoned master Herschel. However, the old man arrived before Theus could complete his thought.

"L me boy!... Your attire doesn't change from one decade to the next does it? Just as one might expect you're preserved exactly as I last saw you. Must be bathing in vinegar... But I can see that there is one new addition... Luci is it? Let's hear about how that happened... Meanwhile is there anything I can offer you to drink?" Herschel offered each a seat as he spoke, cueing Theus to head off toward the kitchen.

[Luci]

Elaethin grinned wide as he greeted Herschel with a quick clap on the back and matched his voice's volume, creating a belowing echo within the house that caused Luci to discreetley plug her ears and hide a hysterical smile. As Elaethin followed Herschel into the kitchen, Luci tagged along.

"I would love some of your herbal tea, Hersch." He paused and sat down casually, knowing that being in the same room with Herschel was like being in a room with his own brother, no matter much of a verbal tyrant he was. He clasped his hands on his lap and crossed one leg over the other, turning his body towards Herschel, keeping his eyes on his dear friends' movement. All of it.

"You know there's been one more than Luci, Isaac was born two years ago, I think I mentioned to you months before that Sadie was expecting, didn't I?" Elaethin spoke freely and motioned for Luci, who was standing in a nervous position by the door of the kitchen, to sit down next to him. She followed, as she had been eyeing Theus for a few minutes before.

As her father and the new aquaintance made small talk, she glanced over again, his very existance confused her. She rose her left eyebrow as she looked at his scratches and the bandage on his head, and then darted her attention back to her father. Luci was also curious as to when she would get to speak, of course she could blurt in at any moment, but she decided to keep it quiet. Her gaze drifted off onto different parts of the shop...or house, whichever it was, she didn't know.

[Theus]

"Oh Isaac... Yes that's right... Better be careful how big you let your brood get. Both you and I have some elf friends who got a bit carried away with sewing their wild oats; it's a bit hard not to when you live for so long... And that's how you end up with one elf in every 100 having the same last name... 'bit of an exageration", Herschel cast a glance back at Theus to see how the tea was coming along, "but let's discuss the matter at hand shall we?"

Meanwhile Theus stood over the counter preparing the list of unusual ingredients for Herschel's signature beverage, chief among them an exotic looking dried lizard with a rather startled expression frozen on it's face. Theus bunged the roots, petals and dearly departed reptillian into the pot (which produced a puff of purple fumes) and set it to boil, noticing out of the corner of his eye that he was under surveillance courtesy of the girl who sat at Elaethin's side. Upon a second glance Theus noticed something extraordinary about the girl's eyes for the first time, which made him remark to himself in the same way one does upon seeing a cat with eyes of two colors or a three legged dog. However, these eyes were especially unusual, sporting a concentric triad of green, blue and magenta. "Nifty", was the only word that expressed his private reaction to the feature he'd failed to notice earlier.

Theus served three cups to the gathering at the table, ommiting himself of course, before taking a seat where he silently awaited the guest's reaction with repressed anticipation, a mysterious shadow falling over his discrete yet ominous smile. [color=lightblue]"If your tongue starts to swell we have something for that", he said in a way that made it difficult to determine if he was kidding or not.

[Luci]

The edge of Luci's lip followed her eyebrow as it rose again, watching the peculiar ingrediants being dropped into the pot with a tinge of disgust. She shook her head again discreetly as she turned her head away, but fought her eyes as they continued to dart back and forth to Theus, who had glanced at her.
"Stop it..." She muttered to herself under her breath as her head lowered a bit, her chin almost touching her chest. Her lips barely moved, but Elaethin caught the words ever so slightly and slowly turned his head towards his daughter, cutting off his conversation with Herschel.

Luci glanced up a few times, feeling an odd sensation on the top of her head where her father's eyes were and sat up almost too erect on her chair with her hands safely planted in her lap. Secretly she bit the inside of her cheek to not make a sound. Elaethin gave her a look as if to say "are you alright?" with an awkward shoulder placement and a raised chin. Luci moved her tongue to the outside of her upper row of teeth and stared back at her father in the same awkward way, and then waved her hand at him quickly, turning her head away and covering the gesture by scratching the back of her neck.

Elaethin blinked a few times and then turned back to Herschel, thanking the boy for his drink, and sipping from it. Luci swallowed hard and shivered at the sight.
"Ah, yes, well." He started as he put down his cup, blowing an excess of purple smoke from his mouth.
"In a nutshell, I need Luci to stay here for a while. She's..." He paused for a moment, giving Herschel a look as if he were speaking into his mind. "Had an encounter, while playing in the woods. She needs to have more experience with people, learn about the outside world, and that's far fromt he countryside don't you think?"

[Theus]

"I think nowadays people ought to have more experience in the countryside far away from each other. However, I'm sure I can arrange extra accomodations for her while she takes advantage of the opportunites that can be found in the city, earning her keep by doing odd jobs around the house. I might have some even jobs for her too." He said the last bit turning his eyes in her direction, "And I might just stop talking about her over her head in the third person someday. Who knows." Herschel paused for a moment swinging around the wrong way in his seat to find Theus who he'd lost track of, "Where'd you go, oh there you are."

Theus was now standing off in the corner of the kitchen with a tin of biscuits in his hand, one protruding from his mouth as he turned to acknowledge the old man. "Mmm?" was Theus' quizzical response. "Slave! Looks like you've got a subbordinate." Hands now empty Theus hunched over and rubbed them together pretending to have a devious agenda. "Excellent", is what his reply sounded like through the biscuity mass. "In any case, I'll have Slave show Luci to a room that I figure will adequately acommodate her during her stay and we can suss over the details while they unpack her things", Herschel gave Theus his cue to escort Luci to the chamber he'd mentioned earlier. "Yesss, mah-stah", said Theus as he hobbled over to and hoisted the bags containing Luci's belongings over either shoulder. "Right this way my midgetress", said Theus as he headed down the hallway from the living room.

Theus led her past several doors along the length of one hallway, the walls of which were lined with peculiar portraits. Each one Depicted Herschel in a slightly different position, with a different expression, or sometimes a different sartorial arrangement alltogether. At the end of a hallway there was a rather sturdy looking door installed with a heavy mechanical lock. Depositing Luci's things to one side Theus struggled with the mechanism for a while before the pins reluctantly uncoupled from the door jam. However, Theus continued to struggle with the actual act of opening the doorway. First he attempted to force it with his hands, but failing that he employed the use of his shoulder. Eventually he took a step back and rammed the door which flew open suddenly allowing his momentum to carry him all the way down the long flight of stairs into the unlit corridor below.

Luci winced as Theus' cries of distress accompanied the full duration of his relatively long downward journey. There was a long pause at the end and then she could hear his voice from below calm and unaffected. "Well, what are you waiting for up there?", he said prompting her to gather her bags and follow him down the stairs.

"Almost there", he said as he led her down another hallway, up a shorter flight of stairs, through several twists, turns, ups and downs and finally back to the kitchen. "Wait... that's not right... sorry." Theus backed out of the kitchen his hand directing Luci to do the same as Herschel and Elaethin watched them leave wearing puzzled expressions on their faces.

After an equally long journey through the curiously winding floor plan Theus' efforts at last appeared to reach a head. "Huh... since when was this here?" This time he indicated a red door in front of him as he produced a mass of keys strung around a large copper hoop from his pocket. Selecting the appropriate key he jiggled the lock a little bit until it clicked and the door swung open on its own.

"And there you have it, your new humble, blah..." Theus' voice trailed of at the sight of the spectacle inside. He was doubly suprised as not only were the furnishings outlandish, but in the midst of the rose tinted room under the drapes on the heart shaped bed covered in countless stuffed animals there curled up on a red pillow was Wobbles the cat.

[Luci]

After the incredible trip through the very awkward maze of a house Luci couldn't help but burst out laughing when the door opened. She had already spent nearly an hour learning about Theus' personality by following him around the house, as well as beign distracted by his 'casual' antics from accross the room.

Luci covered her face and slumped against the wall as she laughed uncontrollably for about 30 seconds, until she slid her hands down her face a bit and looked up at Theus.
"I'm sorry I've been holding that in for probably 2 hours or so." She said quickly, mid-laughter. She paused for a moment as if to wait for a response, like she respectfully would have, but Theus for some reason gave her a very carefree and playful vibe, which she only really had when she was exploring in the woods.

Luci continued.
"It started with the lizard tea, and then sort of reached the peak when we came back to the kitchen, and now I'm standing ina bright pink room with a heartshaped bed." She made sure she didn't sound like she was critisizing her new housemate, but she thought it very amusing that he was leading her around in such a bizzare way. So much in fact, that she continued to spew out words rapidly.

"This house is incredible, you have a three legged cat that runs like the wind-and how many times do you have to fall down something until you can't feel it anymore?" She stopped suddenly, noticing that she hadn't taken a breather in a good while.

Luci took a breathe, and stopped laughing. She lowered her head a bit and curled a bit of hair around her ear, "Sorry." She glanced up again, noticing that he was still looking at her, and the second she felt a bit of color in her cheeks, she turned quickly and entered her room, picking up a rather large bag and throwing it onto the erotic piece of furniture. She made a face when her back turned like she wanted to slap herself in the face, she blinked a few times and mentally shook herself, then began to unpack some of her belongings as Wobbles tossed and turned in his sleep. Every time he twitched she could hear the sound of his pegleg hitting the bedpost.

[Luci]

(when i figure out how to delete posts, i will)

[Theus]

Theus stood in a bit of a daze. Eyes on the dressing table, eyes on wobbles, then over to the wardrobe, back to wobbles, fancy elliptical rug, wobbles, stuffed unicorn, wobbles. "How the devil did that cat get in here!... oh sorry... 'kind of spaced out there for a minute." Theus recovered himself and continued with a smile, "Oh, it get's wierder, all the quirks aren't out of the bag yet my Lilliputlian friend."

"That one's named wobbles by the way; you can get introduced... alright, let's see what you lugged all the way here." As Luci continued to unpack her bag Theus opened another which happened to contain various articles of clothing. "Ahh we'll want to put these in here", Theus said as he went over to the wardrobe, opening the doors to find hanging before him various quality dresses and articles of almost every style and color. "Where does he get all of this stuff, how does he afford it, where has he been keeping it, and what is an old man doing hanging onto these kinds of things!?... That's what I'd like to know!" Theus made a concious effort to shiver at the thought.

"You don't look like the type who typically wears these kinds of things... I can get them out of here if you...", and then Theus saw the look of overjoy that slowly crept over her face as she gradually turned around to see his discovery. "Nevermind then", he said with a chuckle. "Actually, if you don't mind... I have to go speak to the crazy man himself for a second... I won't be very long."

Theus started down the hallway trying to remember the floor plan, which seemed to have suddenly changed that day, though it was possible that the room to which Theus had been previously oblivious was always there. He made his way back to the kitchen only to discover that the two had carried their conversation on somewhere else. Theus began to wander about the house finding the living room vacant aswell. Only once he approached Herschel's workshop area did he begin to hear voices.

When he reached the door the conversation was too faint to actually be carrying on in the workshop itself, to which Theus didn't hesitate to admit himself entry. The inside of the workshop itself actually resembled a chemist's laboratory more than the workplace of a simple apothecary. Theus made his way past boiling aparati and shelves upon shelves of codices, scrolls and other articles of documentation. The facility was about the size of a small library intersperced with work stations, basins, wallcharts, and most notably, several startled looking specimens preserved in large jars.

Theus' location of interest, however, was on the other side of the room where the conversation seemed to be coming from behind a large door held shut by the most sturdy mechanical lock in the whole complex. Theus scuttled up to the door quickly and placed his ear against it. When he mannaged to stifle his breathing enough to hear he caught what seemed to be the tail end of a conversation.

"I doubt the common sense behind bringing them through here, when you should be concentrating on the duty that was entrusted above the rest of us to you." Theus identified the voice as belonging to Elaethin who carried a more serious tone than Theus was accustomed to hearing. "I serve under more lines of duty than the lines that fill these books. There's a reason they entrust me with it. It would be economical for you to try and emulate their trust my friend." The voice was almost unrecognizable to Theus who had never heard Herschel inject such a heavy sense of gravity into his words.

"Don't allow my scepticism to dull our friendship. I just hope you can do better with the both of them than I've been hearing of late." Elaethin was trying to lighten the tone as the conversation seemed to have reached an uncomfortable intensity.

"I'm barred from intervening too heavily you understand, it's a bit of tricky situation. Anyway, I understand your request. Let's go and see how your daughter is settling in shall we?" The conversation seemed to be wrapping up so Theus shot across the room to the opposite doorway, deftly avoiding in an unusual way the objects and obstacles that littered the room. Once out in the hallway he continued to distance himself from the scene. However, in mid stride his foot connected with something soft furry, and upon mid air inspection, peg-legged. Theus cursed his fate moments before he fell headlong down another flight of stairs at which time Luci's question came into his mind. 'It never stops hurting...', he thought.

[Luci]

Luci hummed to herself as she began to sort of unfold the mystery of her being comfortable with a complete stranger. She had completely forgot about her new asset on her face, she paused for a moment and looked up, giving her reflection a sort of sneer. She was woken out of her trance by the muffled crashing sound of Theus falling down more stairs.

The biggest thing Luci carried with her was her bag of clothing, the other contained most of the articles in her bedroom, which wasn't very much. First she respectfully pushed the mass of stuffed animals off the bed, and began shuffling them underneath the bedframe. Her foot tapped against something hard. Luci suddenly dropped to her knees and lifted the flattened red fabric hanging over the edge of the lace lined mattress and squinted underneath the bed. She found it hard to see, but from what she could it was some kind of trunk that was very long. Luci snapped back up when she heard footsteps coming towards her new room.

She stood and removed her shirt, revealing another, more heat appropriate one, and proceeded hanging it up on the back of the closet door, which to her odd surprise had a dull, cracked mirror, covered in colorful pieces a clay like material stuck to it, in various designs. Such as hearts and ducks. She closed the door, and set up a few momentos from home on her end table, including a tattered journal with writing in elvish and common on the front, displaying many different phrases, all meaning "keep out."

"knock knock!" Luci turned around and saw Herschel speak as he proceeded right through the door with Elaethin, letting the father in first. Herschel immediatley closed the door behind him, so as Theus' rapid thumps became louder and louder, as if expecting to make full contact with the door, Luci prepared herself with a wince as the boy flew back, and then rebounded right back into the room just as quick as he bounced off the old wood, and softly shut the door behind him, letting a tiny wheeze escape his lungs.

"Does no one even pay attention! This man must have a metal head I mean come on he's gone through about 6 lives already, who's to say he's not going to drop dead the next time he falls down a mineshaft, does a backflip, falls through a razor washboard and then follows a sparkly tree branch with wings back to the house! Oh wait, that's right, HE'S IMMORTAL!" Luci thought. "Hello." She said conently.

"I'm going to be leaving soon, love, have you got everything unpacked?" Elaethin said calmly as he put a hand on her head and looked down.
"Almost" She replied as she gave him another smile, when a stomach ache hit her suddenly. She reminded herself that the only time she'd left home was to walk in the woods, and she was still in earshot. Luci felt tears weld in her eyes again, but quickly whiped them away, her smile turned quivery. Elaethin wrapped his long arms around her, and Luci pressed her face into his stomach. She realized how much she'd hate the 'I miss you' feeling.

[Theus]

Theus nursed the lumps on his head as father and daughter began to bid each other farewell. Chief among his thoughts were the fragments of conversation he overheard (hopelessly impossible to interpret out of context), that and the back log of questions inspired by the fresh oddities of the day.

"You know...", Theus began as one thought rose to the surface, "It's not technically a tea... it's more like a broth... what with the lizard." Theus silenced himself when he realised the solemnity of the atmosphere he was intruding and the flippancy of his remark. Side stepping slowly he exited the room and headed in the direction of the kitchen, visualizing the biscuit tin, but he was intercepted by Herschel's voice which plainly stated in a way that gave credence to Herschel's rumored clairvoyance "we ate them all".

"Damnit."

[Luci]

Elaething finished his farewell to Luci and finally concluded it with a few seconds of whispering something to her in elvish. It was a simple goodbye and i love you, but it made Luci feel safer saying final words in their special language.

Luci stayed in the room while Herschel lead Elaethin out the door, she followed the footsteps all the way down the stairs, but despite the long journey it took to get to her bedroom with Theus, she only counced 60 steps. She'd made the connection that the house was most likely enchanted.

As she started to put her clothing away, which was only 2 drawers full, she heard the door close underneath her. Luci shoved her empty bags in her closet as she saw the sun out the window moving past mid-day, it was closing in on dinnertime back home. She was then startled by a growling stomach.