September Catch-All for Klaus Von Reinherz

[purered]

Characters: Klaus and YOU!
Date: September 2015 (2016 in game)
Location: Various
Situation: September (aaaand some of August probably) Catch-All
Warnings/Rating: Will be given as needed in the headers.



A. Closed to Enjolras and Backdated to 8/11

Klaus was hard to miss, especially in a fairly quiet cafe. He was seated with his back to a corner with a cup of something that might have once been coffee but the wanton use of cream and sugar and foam had mutated it into some sort of caffeinated abomination from sugar hell.

Klaus had a bit of a sweet tooth. The strawberry danish had never stood a chance.

Getting his phone charged had been a blessing. At the present time, he was playing a rousing game of Prosfair on it. Not against anyone but the phone itself, and it was a simplified version at that. He enjoyed it nonetheless, and it made for a pleasant distraction while he waited for Enjolras.

B. Closed to Raine - Cooking up a Storm (Hotel Kitchen)

It was, of course, a phenomenally bad idea. But it was something he'd have to learn to do for himself. He wasn't a child for God's sake, and Gilbert wasn't here to handle the cooking. It was embarrassing, really, that he'd never learned. He was perfectly good at any other sort of housework, but something about mixing ingredients and staying in one spot to make sure they didn't congeal was somehow beyond him.

That being said, Klaus tied the apron around his middle with the grim determination he reserved for dealing with the most unpleasant of vampires. He set his jaw, and picked up the small book of recipes, deciding to start with something simple.

How hard could pancakes be?

C. OPEN - Flower Shop (Wood District)

It was a small shop in the Wood District that had a smaller greenhouse attached to the back. The owner was an elderly Kedaan gentleman and he handled the floor of the shop. Klaus was being paid very handsomely to tend to the plants (and only the plants) on account of his rather... extreme features nearly sending an old woman into cardiac arrest.

That had been an interesting day. He'd mentally filed it under 'never speak of this again'. Much of that mental file seemed to have Zapp's name recurring frequently.

The afternoons were nigh unbearable, especially in the greenhouse, though you'd hardly know it looking at Klaus. He was more than content to see to the plants that were blooming beautifully in spite of the heat and drought.

He really had a green thumb.

D. OPEN - Daily Constitutional

He took a walk through and to various districts when the evenings were cool. He was getting a feel for the city the way he had a feel for Jerusalem's Lot. The ebb and flow of her people, the trends and lingo - Klaus found the best way to get over any culture shock was the act of simply immersing himself in it. He stopped at stalls and asked about wares, he wandered the back alleys quite sure no one would be keen to pick a fight.

In another month or so, he'd know the city well enough that he may as well have lived there all his life.

He may or may not have been keeping an eye out for any trouble with the city's most recent visitors. Klaus was a trusting man in general, and always willing to give the benefit of the doubt, but there was a low key tension that left him worried about what might happen next.

E. OPEN - Letter (forward dated to 9/16)

This makes it the third time in so many months.

Please consider some restraint. He would have been worth questioning.

Klaus was seated outside the Midnight Hotel on a stone bench. He stared at the small, neatly folded letter that bore his unmistakable handwriting. He stared at it for some time.

Then, with great care, he removed his spectacles and dragged his hands down his face with an exhale of frustration.

...This really was getting to be a bad habit.

Comments

[oceantier]

She didn't know him or his reputation, no . . . but the calm assertion of his reply, unquestioning and firm in its weight, settled the sparks of uncertainty in her nerves. She could feel something inside herself uncoil, loosen. Her shoulders eased, lower slowly, that small ghost of a smile returning.

"Thank you." The words were very, very soft, but warmth seeped into them, through them. She meant it absolutely.

Extending a hand, she beckoned the water in the greenhouse towards her. Drips left over from Klaus' watering. Pools remaining in the bottoms of pots. The humid haze that hung in the air itself, hovering near the leaves. It came at her call, coalesced . . . and reformed into a replica of Klaus himself, standing motionless between them until suddenly, he bowed.

[purered]

Ah.

Well.

Everything made sense now.

Recovering quickly from his astonishment, he bowed back to the water Klaus.

"You can control water. I take it to the extent that moving the turtle is in the realm of possibility with sufficient aid?"

He took a deep breath, very nearly smiling, though he was aware enough of his features to refrain from doing so. He didn't want to scare Lapis.

"I can call a meeting of the other foreigners as well as any locals to piece together a plan. Though it might help to know what you need."

[oceantier]

"I can lift the turtle with the ocean." Her voice stayed quiet; this was calm statement of fact. "I can hold it for a long time. But what you showed on the map, anywhere we go from here closer to land, that's going to take days. Maybe longer. Not to mention wind and currents and weather and who knows what else." She pressed her lips together, her arms coming back around herself. "I don't usually plan things out. I just do them. But this . . . I can't do it myself, and there's too much that could go wrong. There's a lot that we'd need to know in advance. And then we'd need others -- a lot of others -- to help lift and steer and deal with whatever happens."

A breath. "I don't . . . I'm not . . ." Her lips came together tighter, and she wrestled for the words. "Steven . . . he'd want this. But people . . ."

A quick shake of the head, almost verging into a shudder. "I can't."

She didn't explain. But she withdrew back inwards on herself, shoulders tight and hunched again. The water-Klaus waited, expressionless.

[purered]

"For now it would be enough to get us out of the current we're circling," Klaus explained gently, resting a hand very slowly on her shoulder. He hoped it would be some reassurance.

For someone that powerful to be so nervous... he didn't know what to think. She must have been through a nightmare.

"It doesn't have to be done all in one go. We have time," he continued. "And people will want to help. It's going to be alright."

[oceantier]

The hand did startle her. She wasn't used to being touched, and those touches she did receive were not nearly as gentle. Without even considering it, the water-Klaus' hand came down on his counterpart's, heavy, tightening around the wrist. Warning. There was power in the grasp, as though the water-man would not take much to snap the bones. Lapis' breath gave a stop-start -- a quick little intake -- and for a single moment nothing moved, the water-man's grip hard around Klaus' wrist.

Then . . . release. Lapis' breath released, and the water-man's hand slipped away, light as mist or fog. Her eyes slipped back to him, flickering back to his face, eyes wide.

"Sorry." Another breath. "I don't . . . I won't . . ."

I won't hurt you.

But she wasn't sure of that. Not yet.

Her fingers reached up, grazed his hand -- would reach out towards it if he'd already withdrawn it. "Thank you."

For his touch, his trust . . . she couldn't say.

"How . . . should we start?"

[purered]

"It's alright," Klaus reassured, gently patting her shoulder. "You were startled. I understand."

He understood that feeling, like an animal constantly on the verge of lashing out at any extended hand; be it one seeking to help or harm. He had been there before. Those first couple of months had been... a struggle, to say the least.

Even now he felt his hold on his humanity was precarious at best. He had no intention of letting it go.

"Perhaps if I introduced you to others on a more individual basis? Mr Shudder, Mr Cain and Miss Sage are intelligent and kind people, and have a better understanding of the abilities other's here possess. Would that be alright?"

[oceantier]

Hesitation on that. It meant more people. More people she knew, more people who knew her. Her goal, ultimately, was to leave this place, leave all those faces and names. She didn't need more people for that.

She wasn't good at them anyway.

The soul gem seemed particularly heavy around her wrist. Suddenly she was very aware of it, the delicate chain weighted against her skin.

"I . . . like the idea you gave before," she said at last. "About the meeting. Even though . . . I'm not really sure how I'm going to do that too. These people . . . how would they help in a way a meeting wouldn't?"

[purered]

"They are kind and wise people," Klaus explained. "My apologies if this is forward but you don't seem well-accustomed to large groups. I thought perhaps an initial, smaller meeting might help with that."

He splayed his arms, palms up. "It is, however, entirely your decision and I will respect your choice on the matter."

[oceantier]

Her eyes tugged away, staring into some point not far from them -- somewhere through a flowering bush. For a long moment they rested there, then slipped closed entirely as she dove away from him, retreated into herself. It was as though even in front of him, she was somewhere far away, listening to a conversation that only she could hear.

[purered]

He let the silence linger for a while. Wherever Lapis had gone, it was not in the here and now. Something had clearly happened to this woman. What that was, Klaus couldn't be sure, but he gave her a moment to breathe.

When a little time had passed and Lapis wasn't coming back, Klaus touched her shoulder again, softer than the time before.

"Miss Lazuli?"

[oceantier]

Her eyes came open again with some effort, landing first on his chest, then creeping back upward towards his face. In that moment she was very small. Exposed. Bare.

"I must be crazy." Her voice too was small. Distant. "I don't know how I'm going to do this. I just . . ." She grappled again for words -- against some enormity that was too large to confine to sounds and syllables.

"I'm . . . not good with people," she repeated at last. It wasn't what she wanted to say; the words were underneath the phrase, caustic and attempting to break through the surface. "Even if you say they're good . . ."

A breath. "I can't. Your friends. It took enough to come here. Right now . . . I just can't."

[purered]

"You're not crazy," Klaus said with unwavering conviction. "I understand - and we have the luxury of time. It's alright to take things at a slow pace."

His tone was firm, and he hoped Lapis would understand. While they needed to sort out the situation with Tu Vishan in the near future, there was no need to rush (if anything that could make things disastrous).

"Would you be alright with me telling them about you at least?"

[oceantier]

She nodded at that. First small (still distant), then firmer, more present.

Then, perhaps because she felt it merited some kind of explanation (or perhaps it was a second chance to explain: "For a very long time . . . I've been alone. I haven't . . . had to trust anyone for a long time. I want to believe it's a good idea -- trusting others. Steven, you . . . make me want to believe it could be good. I want to."

Her eyes were quiet, dark. "I haven't had . . . luck. With any more than that. For a very, very long time."

[purered]

Klaus folded his hands in his la and took a deep, steadying breath. It wasn't easy acknowledging these sorts of things - he knew that. He knew it very well.

"It is a good idea," Klaus said softly. "It is also very difficult. People are not always good at being understanding or kind and it's very easy to fall into a mindset that it's better to never trust at all than be hurt again and again."

Another breath, not as deep, but he looked down at his folded hands.

"It's not the case at all. It takes... time. And you will meet good people. It must have taken a great deal of courage for you to come here. You are very brave to take that step."

[oceantier]

Her smile was small at that, and wry.

"Not really. Just when I don't have any other choice."

When it mattered to protect something. When something became more than her own fear.

A breath. "I'll try."

[purered]

"When it comes to your own actions, there is always a choice. They are not always easy, and not always good, but they are there," Klaus said softly. For a moment, a look of guilt passed across his face, but it was so quick and subtle that it would be easy to miss.

"I will do everything I am able to support you in this endeavor. Whatever you need, let me know."

[oceantier]

Attuned to everything at the moment, hyper vigilant to even minute shifts, Lapis caught the flicker of expression. But without context, with only barely having met him, it didn't do more than dart across her brain -- something to be remembered later.

"Thank you." Again the words were as quiet as a breath, but warm with the weight of what lay behind them.

Her eyes lifted again to the greenhouse around them, taking the plants in anew. "I like this place . . ."

[purered]

Klaus followed her gaze around the greenhouse. Even the owner of the shop had remarked on the quality of care the plants were getting, and Klaus got the feeling he was not an easy man to impress. It probably helped that Klaus loved flowers with every fiber of his being. He didn't have many hobbies outside of horticulture and prosfair, but he gave them as much dedication as he did his work for Libra.

And it showed.

"You are always welcome here, Miss Lazuli. I understand how some things can become wearying."

[oceantier]

Her fingertips brushed the edge of a leaf -- just the tip, watching it give beneath her touch. Her smile was tiny, but visible.

"I'll come back."