ic Dance Me to the End

[Gizmo]

"That's not why I wear the wig, Corncob. And if you're thinking about Dr. Dreamboat, already know the guy," Erik shot back to the other two men, stooping a bit to hand Terry over to Dimitri and foisting the half-asleep Emily off on Klara when she mentioned 'adorable babies'. "I know people. Well, people with kids. We go to barbecues."

 

Further banter was abruptly cut short by Talya's frank explanation of her plan. In the weighty silence that followed the swordsman was painfully aware of the eyes on him, turning from their guests just long enough to give Min a wounded look as she headed for the kitchen. "...and I'm usually pretty good about spotting an ambush, too," he commented dryly after the gap in the conversation had become a little past awkward. The tone was light enough that to most ears he would have sounded genuinely amused but he was standing in front of several certifiable masters of deflection. He couldn't be too upset; Talya still struggled with open and honest communication and had a tendency to overcompensate.

 

Covering half of his face with one hand, he retrieved his beer with the other, letting out a long breath. "You know you're supposed to invite my friends to an intervention, yeah?"

[Tiffany Korta]

Klara took the baby with some care and gently rocked Emily, whilst singing to her quietly in her own tongue. As she did her brow was slightly furrowed as if she was carefully considering something. Then carefully transferring the infant to one arm, she got out a picture and showed it to Erik. The pictured showed a family carefully arranged around Klara, three young women and someone who looked like their Gran, who Klara was holding rather tenderly.

 

"This is Tracy." she pointed to the older woman "Who I fell completely in love with when I first met her in 1961, as she did with me, and we've been together every since until today. When I first met her we looked almost the same age, and whilst were lucky enough that she got treatments from my own people, she now looks old enough to be my own mother. Soon I will look younger than my own children who I spent the last few decades looking after."

 

She paused for a few seconds and rocked the baby, obviously affected by what she was saying.

 

"Neither of us want to talk about it but we're both aware that we might not have that many more years together."

[Avenger Assembled]

Terry grew animated in Dimitri's arms, wiggling and kicking, a smile on his baby face as he stared up at Dimitri with that single glowing eye. A child's delight in his arms was rarely a good sign, but he decided to take it for a good omen. 

 

As the conversation turned, he felt his icy heart ache. A bad omen, then. 

 

"Is difficult question to answer, since we around this table have never sat in young Erik's shoes. Ssh, aren't you a pretty boy, yes?" He was balancing the baby on his knee, smiling down and careful not to show teeth. "The price of love is pain. Is older truth than any of us, even Lady Min here." He shrugged slightly. "All romance ends in tears. Situation for Erik is not so different than any man's." 

[angrydurf]

Ace took a slow pull of his beer as he watched Eric his posture a practiced sort of carefree slouch that fit perfectly his outward persona.  "That my young friend I can say decisively is not the case."  he countered with an easy laugh and glance from Dimitri to Klara and finally Talya, "And I would be the expert on interventions I've sat my fair share."  he joked lightly about his sometimes reckless descents into hedonism.  "No an intervention is stacked with reminders of what you have to lose and gain and every sort of encouragement to follow hte course prescribed by the organizer."  he explained and drained the last of the bottle setting it delicately on the coffee table with deliberate care.

 

After a long look Talyas direction he smiled down at Klara's picture, and Dimitris more muted reply and shook his head looking for the barest of moments very tired before the flash of a saucy grin once more firmly fixed upon his features, "An adventure for the ages, through the ages!"  he intoned arms spread in a shrug, "Righteous and courageous and forever young what isn't to like?"

[alderwitch]

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it as an ambush - nor did I mean that you had to speak about such things now, but I see the shadows in your eyes, Erik," Talya said as she turned towards the swordsman, hugging herself as if to ward off a wayward chill. Behind her blonde curls her expression was serene and composed, as sure a mask as any she'd ever worn. "We didn't get to choose our immortal spans but if I'd been given the choice in a moment, I would have grasped it. I wanted to live, after all."

 

She paused, her gaze falling for a moment down towards Erik's chest and away from his eyes - or more specifically the wedding band that occupied its ever present place on the chain he wore. "I know you. You'd take on all the pain in the world if it could spare those you love a moment. I should advice you against it. I should tell you that the price is too high, not only for you but all those that you leave behind. I should but I can't. I love you." Talya paused and then turned fully away, "But I promised you honesty. Its the only thing you've ever asked of me."

Edited June 18, 2017 by alderwitch

[Gizmo]

Erik probably would have had a stronger case against Talya's assertion if the note of weary hurt in her voice hadn't set him into an immediate and visceral panic. He was almost physically incapable of having this conversation frankly in front of an audience of people he didn't know particularly well overall - not with Dimitri being especially depressing and what he suspected was some sort of reverse psychology from Ace and entirely too much, too soon from Klara - but he could push his very real and complex concerns down into a compact little ball while he set aside his drink again and placed his hands on Talya's shoulders.

 

"Hey, c'mon. This is getting way ahead of ourselves, right? I'm not exactly wilting away any minute here. And I'm not going to tell this crowd that there aren't ways to pull it off but it's more complicated than swinging over to the corner store." He rolled his thumbs gently into the muscles between her shoulder blades and continued, "I mean, obviously we're ruling out any blood magic or creature of the night stuff and considering who you're talking about just 'unaging' isn't going to cut it long-term." He tried to manage a small laugh at his own expense but it wasn't particularly convincing.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Very wise. I am tolerant man, but some life choices, not to be made," agreed Dimitri, hopeful that the young man seemed willing to listen to reason. But will he be so willing when he is no longer young, or when he feels his youth slipping away every day? He couldn't imagine that a father of so many young children never felt the touch of mortality about his throat. "Blood magic, creatures of the night, pfui. Or worse, being Ace Danger!" He winked at Ace, then returned to Erik. He couldn't quite bring himself to look at Talya, not yet. "Is best to enjoy what you can and what you are. Just as little boy enjoys...being up in the sky!" Pulling on his gloves, he raised Terry up and above over his head, smiling up at the child exaggeratedly. 

[Tiffany Korta]

 

"I apologize if I was too forthright in my opinions, as you can tell it's something that is very dear to my heart. And it is the way of my people to speak the truth when they see it, and my forthrightness in such things have led me to trouble many times before."

 

Klara left unsaid some of the details that were an old bone of contention between herself and Dimitri on such matters, now was not the time to open any more old wounds.

 

"And Dimitri is of cause right in that it's completely up to you what you do. But I would just add that it is also something that you should consider sooner rather than later."

[April]

Min returned to the living room with a tray of snacks.  She didn't really expect anyone to each, maybe nibble or two, but the tray of cut vegetables, crackers and cheeses was more to give people something to do with their hands.  Or to keep their mouths occupied so awkward silences were just slightly less awkward.

 

After she set the tray down she returned to Erik's side, giving her husband a small sad smile with a hint of apology.  She rested a hand on his shoulder then trailed it down his back.  "Considering the way I acted last time this subject arose," she said quietly, "I did not think it appropriate for me to bring it up again.  That isn't to say it should not be discussed, only that I have forfeit my right to the discussion."

[angrydurf]

Ace hid his discomfort with Talyas forthright vulnerability and Erics clear avoidance of the topic behind a facade of false affront at Dimitris commentary, "Hey I resemble that remark."  he retorted with a smile.  "You my dear are a treasure."  he complimented Min with an easy grin as he scooped up a cracker and dollop of brie, "Love a good brie."  

 

"And I will note."  he pointed out to Eric, "That depends entirely on the corner stores you frequent."  He nodded sagely.  "I was travelling through this market in Marrakesh in the early days of the war and this hawker caught my attention."  he explained bombastically, "Philtres, Salves, and Imbrications of all sorts arrayed on this delightful late ottoman rug." the ageless adventurer continued building up a head of steam in yet another tall tale in the origin of his own famed lifespan.  He glanced to Talya and paused, "Well perhaps that is a tale for another time."  he shrugged, "Suffice to say I left a changed man."

[alderwitch]

Talya remained quiet, the eye of the storm that she'd set swirling. Mutely, her shoulders sagged under the hands that knew her so well. She rather knew that the touch was as much for her comfort as it was to gauge her moods. Erik had well learned that her serene features did not extend to whether tension tightened her muscles like honed bow strings. She didn't rise to the bait that Ace offered - to wryly poke holes in yet another of his tall tales, or the many deflections that were available to turn the conversation to more pleasant topics. Smoothing things over was well in her wheel house but she was learning; learning to deal with the discomforts that came with exposed emotions. 

 

After a pronounced pause, her words were quiet, "That's exactly why I brought it up. Your life is far to exciting - too filled with immortals and portals and gods-with-a-small-g. I know that you'd rather let the world believe that you leap first and look later but you do think about things. You should have the chance to make peace with your choice before it gets made." She stretched her hands out to where Terry chortled with glee as he was flown by Dimitri above his head, her voice studiously neutral and as steady as the delicate hands that touched his blonde curls. Talya might as well have been talking about the weather as outliving some of her own children. "My immortality is almost certainly not hereditary. Terry and Emily shall likely take after you in more than your good looks. It is not such a bad thing to have a mortal life."

 

She turned then towards Min with an apology in her blue eyes, as if she couldn't bear to let those words linger in the air any longer than it took to say them. "Dearest, if past actions meant forfeiting the right to converse about topics, half the people in this room would be mute and have to rely on our good looks to get us through the world."

[Gizmo]

"Is mute good looks on the table? I can do mute good looks," Erik rejoined entirely on reflex, inflection flat with mounting weariness. The fencer could - and had, in fact - deliver a quip with a bullet in his shoulder and a boot on his chest, which was roughly analogous to how he was feeling. They didn't know if any of the children had inherited their respective biological mothers' immortality, if they would continue to age past adulthood but slowly, if they would get stuck in adolescence, burn like a candle lit at both ends. Sooner or later he was going to break his wives' hearts and that was a bitter enough pill but there was a damn good chance they'd been doomed to bury their own babies the moment he'd entered their lives. There was no way to know. There was nothing to be done. If pretending the thought had never occurred to him made him a coward, that was fine with him.

 

But he had asked Talya for more honesty so he couldn't really turn around and play the little-white-lie card. Instead he pulled his hands back and ran them through his hair while letting out a long breath. "Alright. Look. Obviously I've thought about it. Yeah, I live an interesting life. I know maybe a dozen or more folks who don't look near their age. Half of them have died and it didn't take. Did that myself once on accident." He'd tried talking to Ace about that one, back in what seemed like another lifetime. He almost managed to smirk at the pun. Instead he grimaced. "And I've got friends who stayed dead. Seen decent people twisted by power or rage or grief. I've seen other worlds where everything went to hell because some idiot made the wrong choice."

 

His hands clenched and unclenched at his sides once before he willed them into stillness despite his back muscle tensing like he wanted to throw a punch. "So nobody has to talk to me like I'm some wide-eyed kid who doesn't what the real world's ready to throw at him. If I want advice, I'll ask for it." His voice started to raise before stopped short and worked his jaw for a moment, adding more softly, "I can promise that. But I don't have an answer for you. I think anybody who says they really know which way they'd go in the moment is a liar or an idiot."

[Avenger Assembled]

As his father spoke, Terry closed his eyes, both the marked and unmarked one, and concentrated deeply, his little face lined with great effort. Dimitri mused that perhaps the boy was right to think so - how difficult this must be for Erik, a mortal man in a room with so many immortals, some offering him the taste of ambrosia, others assuring him it had a bitter taste now that they had taken the liberty of drinking deeply. Still, its taste lingers long. How long would he enjoy living past his family, past his neighbors, his city? 

 

Dimitri seriously considered offering his opinion once the room had quieted, but then suddenly Terry's expression broadened into a smile - and a faint but distinct scent rose from him."The child's bowels have moved!" declared Dimitri. Thank the gods! Child, you are a marvel. 

[Tiffany Korta]

 

Klara knew that her passionate nature was sometimes a little too much, and normally she had Tracy to curb her excesses, and right now she was sure she'd gone a little too far. This was something that was between family now and she felt that they needed some time together to process everything. And with some timing that only the very young could manage, the little one gave her an opportunity to leave for a short while.

 

"They tend to do that." she gave soft chuckle "I can go change the babies nappy while the adult talk if that okay with you all?"

 

Having grown up in a culture with sometimes complicated family arrangement she knew enough to look at all three of the family members to get the correct permission.

[April]

Minerva looked at Klara and gave her a small nod of the head.

 

She turned her attention back to her husband and wife and considered what Erik said.  "There was a time where I wish I would die," she said without preamble.  "It had seemed as though I could no longer fulfill my function, and with all of my siblings presumed dead I did not see a point in trying to continue."

 

"Things are different now," she continued.  "I have purpose and I might not be the last of my kind.  It is because of your that I have this, and I thank you for it, dear heart."