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The boy in the block of ice

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The boy in the block of ice Empty The boy in the block of ice

Post by Tyler 23rd February 2018, 5:02 pm

Mid-day had settled over the city with a golden glow and cloudy skies. Patrons of the Midnight Hour were relaxed, camaraderie over the regulars as they joyously joked to the bartender and clinked cold glasses of beverages in celebrations. A tall gentlemen of nondescript clothing and face was seated at the bar, a whiskey set atop a coaster next to him, his head turned towards a shorter man, a blonde-haired, green eyed scientist, evidenced by his carelessly hanging employee badge, pinched on his slacks in forgotten woes. The name on the tag read in stark lettering "Doctor Wyatt Pendelum" alongside "Head of Radioactive Technology".

"Old enough to be displayed in a museum, " the other was saying. Dr. Wyatt Pendelum raised a brow at the stranger, picking up his beer to swallow a mouthful before sighing.

"You must understand I have no reason for such an...antique." Pendelum disuaded.

"Aye, but a boy physically and mentally, with something a little... heh... special to him," the stranger countered. Pendelum forgot about the lady at the counter filling his drink in favor of arching an eyebrow in surprise. A boy?

"A boy with what?" Pendelum questioned.

"He's never been awake since 1919," chortled the man, "but I can tell he's developed quite the asset. If I ever woke him up. Teenager with the ability to manipulate water. You say you have no reason for him, but he's worth a hefty penny with the right training. There's a little crescent moon on his shoulder that I've been working on eventually removing. I inherited the lad from my grandfather."

"Why remove a birthmark?" Pendelum sighed, returning to his drink, "I'm not interested at the moment. But a colleague would be. At Swinging Sears Warehouse you said? He'll meet you there, if I exchange the contact."

The stranger smirked and nodded, paying for his drink with a saucy wink to the bartender before heading back to the warehouse to check on the little inherited toy form his grandfather. His father was the one to have finally figured out a radioactive chemical makeup that sparked the water manipulation, as evidenced by the teenager's strange water particles coating his skin despite being frozen rock solid.

A strange one, but he couldn't wait to profit off this heirloom.
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Post by Holly 2nd March 2018, 9:28 pm

She'd know those green eyes anywhere.  She's been dreaming of them for days on end, and while she'd figured out that the owner was going to be important, the last place she thought she'd encounter someone from her dreams was at work.  She keeps her head down, filling drinks and cashing out tabs, but she listens as best she can while she works.  

Mr. Green Eyes seems confused by what his companion is saying, and she is too until a birthmark is mentioned.  A crescent moon on someone's shoulder.  

She knew someone with a birthmark like that once upon a time, but he was supposed to have died almost a hundred years ago.   It could just be coincidence, but what are the odds of that?

Probably about the same as the odds of her baby brother surviving the streetcar accident and then being kept alive for nearly a century.

Green Eyes' companion even has the nerve to wink at her as he pays his tab and turns to leave.  She forces a smile, repeating the name of the warehouse over and over in her head.   Even if it isn't Kayden being kept there, the least she can do is try and get the poor thing out of wherever he's being held. Nobody deserves to be held in a place like that being poked and prodded so that some scientist can sate their curiosity.

Hours pass, and people come and go.  The last call for drinks comes after what feels like an eternity, and when it's finally time to close up shop, she feels like she's never moved so fast.  By the time she arrives at her little beat up Honda parked behind the bar, she's nearly shaking with excitement and fear.  

It takes her a few minutes to find the address of the warehouse and put it into the GPS on her phone.  Clearly whoever owns the building doesn't take kindly to intruders, with the street view of the building showing a high chain-link fence surrounding the building's lot.  

Kayden, or whoever it is, is worth it, she reminds herself, letting out a slow breath and adjusting her grip on the steering wheel before backing out of the lot and onto the street.  She drives for what seems like another eternity until she finds the building on the corner of 6th and Lander.  It's a hulking thing, all dark concrete walls separated from the chain link fence by a narrow strip of concrete and dead brown grass.  It's only a little imposing, and she has to exhale again as she parks on the street and gets out.  

---

This is insane, she thinks, pulling the hood of her jacket up over her hair and tucking her hands into the pockets as she studies the blocky structure.   I could be arrested for this.  

Somehow, it doesn't seem like such a bad thing.  Having Kayden come back to her is an opportunity she isn't going to pass up, no matter what the consequences are.  

She crosses the street at a jog, coming up short at the nearest set of doors.  The rusted metal padlock and chain give way under her earth affinity without too much trouble, but a blinking panel on the wall gives her pause.  She'll have to be fast, it seems, and she stifles a sigh.  

This is a very bad idea, but there's no going back now.  Turning on the flashlight on her phone, she steps deeper into the warehouse.

She doesn't encounter anything for several minutes as she walks through the dark of the warehouse, shining the light on her phone ahead of her to try and discern her surroundings.  
There isn’t much around her that she can tell - just empty metal shelving units and canvas-covered boxes - until her flashlight beam catches something rounded and metallic.  Another step closer and her flashlight reveals what can only be described as a metal casket with a touchpad set into the side and a crystalline substance in the middle.  There’s a darker shape inside the clear material, and when she presses her palm to it and leans over to get a better look she finds it to be cold.  

The cold isn’t what makes her suck in a breath between her teeth. It’s the face of the boy lying encased in the ice that does that.  She hasn’t seen it in 100 years, and yet she remembers it as clearly as ever.  The shape of his cheekbones is almost the same as the shape of her own, and his narrow jaw looks exactly like their father’s.  

Kayden, her baby brother, has survived.  She doesn’t know whether to cry or laugh with jubilation, but she shelves her emotions for a later time when her brother is safely out of the ice.  
She wastes no time with the touchpad, instead placing her hands back on the ice and closing her eyes.   Slowly the ice begins to melt under her palms, flowing down the side of the casket to drip onto the floor, puddling under her boots.  The tip of Kayden’s nose is just beginning to be visible after ten minutes of melting when there’s a rattle somewhere in the warehouse and she freezes.  

All at once the lights come on, stinging her dark-adjusted eyes and making her curse.  Men’s voices - the same men from the bar, she thinks - echo off the high ceilings, and she presses her hands harder into the ice, willing it to melt faster.  The ice obeys, but Kayden’s arms and legs are still encased when two figures round a corner and spot her.

“Hey!”

She was right about the voices - it’s the same two men from the bar - but it doesn’t matter.  The one who winked at her has a gun, and she has no choice but to spit a protective curse as a gunshot echoes through the huge space.  The bullet tinkles as it hits the floor behind her, and she whirls with a hex on her lips.   She draws on the water in the air, collecting it and condensing it until there’s enough to freeze the two men from shoulders to heels.  By the time she’s done her hair is frizzing and her lips cracked and bleeding from the lack of moisture, but the men are contained.  The two men curse, calling her all manner of unpleasant names as she moves back to continue thawing Kayden.  

“What are you doing?! He’s not meant to be woken that way!” The winking man is nearly frantic, struggling against the ice that surrounds him as Kayden’s prison melts away under her hands.  He gets even more frantic when her brother is fully free of the ice and she can slide an arm under his shoulders and his legs to lift him out of the remains of his containment chamber.   She’s grateful for his slight frame because if he was any taller or heavier she might not be able to even get him off the table.  

“Hey! You can’t take him! He’s belonged to my family for a century!” The winker snarls, thrashing as the ice around his shoulders begins to crack.

“Finders keepers.”  She casts a glance back over her shoulder, a sneer on her lips as she lets go of Kayden’s legs and shifts him over her shoulder.  “Too bad, boys.”

With that, she takes off out of the warehouse at a run.  

---

She nearly killed them both on the way home, just because she couldn’t stop looking at the boy slumped in her passenger seat.  She gets him home with some difficulty, heaving him up the steps to her townhouse and then up another set of stairs inside the house to the spare bedroom.  He’s still dressed as he was the last time she saw him, and she takes care not to damage his clothes as she strips him down to his drawers and heaves him into the bed.  She pulls the covers up around his slight shoulders and then, almost as though she can’t believe she can, she whispers his name.

“Kayden.  Kay, honey.  It’s time to wake up.”
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Post by Tyler 2nd March 2018, 10:04 pm

They’d been arguing that day, Amelie and he. Amelie was only 3 years younger than Kayden, but he’d been in the middle of telling Amelie that she couldn’t join his friends on an excursion through the woods. Calvin, Gregory, and Kayden had been permitted by their families to camp out in the woods as a means to toughen up, a last hurrah due to the move to New Orleans his family was in. Anais was already making her way to their new home, saying she’d meet up. Amelie, upset at being left alone this weekend by the sounds of plans, wanted to come with Kayden. His mother had turned to scold him while his father had given her a reassuring laugh, turning as well to say something. Something perhaps about a boys will be boys generic statement.

But they’d never left his mouth. Nothing ever would.

Pain had exploded on all sides of the 15 year old boy. Screams and the scent of iron assaulted his senses as he lay on his side, gasping for breath. He could hear his sister, Amelie, choking and gurgling, but the pain had become too much and he’d given in to Morpheus.

Pain had startled him awake once more, but with the blurry realization that someone was standing over him just a few short minutes later. Kayden had gasped for help, wheezing in the agony of a piece of the streetcar’s wheels embedded into his stomach. The stranger, bearing a white coat and a sickly smile, had kindly knelt down and whispered barely there words to the teenager.

Kayden had only had time to blearily look into the smoke-filled airs to see the lifeless eyes of Amelie DuPonte, the quiet bodies of his parents, and the piece of the wheel in his stomach before he’d caved into blackness once more, the stranger placing his hands on the wheel piece as he faded.

Things became cold after that. So very cold. There was sweet nothings to accompany him, his conscious mind never swimming to the surface as his body had been made malleable to the liquid surrounding him and then frozen over. Things would spark and clink, melt and mold into him, but Kayden would never wake to them. No conscious thought occurred to the 15-year-old boy in the unfortunate accident. The wound in his stomach was long since healed by the stranger, but the blood still caked the suit he bore, the crumbled photo of his family frozen in his pocket and preserved in it’s sepia tones. Needles through the ice would try to touch at the strange crescent moon birthmark on his back, but nothing would come of this.

Decades passed by until it became a century when something changed, the back of the boy’s mind stirring in interest. There was a warmth he hadn’t felt in so –so- long, ruffling the tips of his rich brown hair, dripping off his heavy eyelashes, and then his nose. The rush of noise assaulted the unconscious boy’s ears as shouting occurred, thrashes of people and the sound of droplets all around him.

Then, he felt something new. A warmth again, but by his shoulders and legs, encasing him and holding him close. Kayden stirred, for the first time in a century, but could not get his own body to react. So utterly exhausted, he faded into the land of Morpheus, unable to process any thought of his situation.

”Kayden. Kay, honey. It’s time to wake up.”

A melodious voice broke into the blissful darkness of his mind, stirring awake Kayden. A twitch of his nose was the first reaction in a bid to wake up. He knew that voice. Try as he might, his hands weren’t cooperating, nor the rest of his lower body. Everything felt so heavy and sluggish. The teen was dead still and silent for several longer seconds before a slight movement in his eyelids finally happened.

Slowly, but surely, eyelashes fluttered once, then twice, before multiple times in a turtle-speed fashion before opening to reveal deep oceanic eyes with specks of forest green splattered throughout them, a trademark identifier of the child. Everything was a dull gray of nothingness for a minute before focusing softly on the features before him.

A woman. Her blonde hair falling around her cheeks and jaw in a chaotic way. The rich blue eyes staring right back into his. Kayden’s mind slurred to respond, but when it finally did, it clicked the rest into place.

“A…A-a,” he croaked out. He cleared his throat painfully, wincing, before trying again. “A-ana…is.” A voice unused in a century broke off with a harsh cough before settling, the teen looking at his older sister with confused, tired eyes. “Wh…Whe…re?”
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Post by Holly 2nd March 2018, 10:41 pm

Her words hang in the air between them, though her brother doesn't move. She waits, but part of her has to wonder if she isn't too late; if he hasn't been frozen for too long and died of his wounds or hypothermia. It would be just her luck to find him and then lose him again, just like she has everyone else.

She reaches out to brush his hair off of his forehead, only to come up short when his eyelashes flutter just the tiniest bit. She's sure she must have imagined it, only to have it happen again, and then again once more.

It takes a moment for his eyes to open, but when they do she finds herself staring right into those ocean-blue eyes that she knows so well. He tries to speak, slurring his words until he has to cough painfully to clear his throat. She slips an arm under his shoulders to help him sit up, perching on the edge of the bed as best she can to support him.

"Shh, Kay. Just relax, I've got you." She murmurs, rubbing her brother's shoulder to warm him. "You're safe. We're safe."

They might not be perfectly safe, given that two men of science just saw her stop a bullet with a word and then freeze them where they stood, but it's an improvement from his previous accommodation. At least here she can help him understand what happened, and keep him safe better than any scientist ever could.

"Just rest, Kay. You've had quite the adventure," she sighs, some of her old accent slipping into her voice as she leans over to rest her cheek against the top of his head.
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Post by Tyler 3rd March 2018, 9:34 am

The warmth of her hands slipped underneath his shoulders, inclining his weak body to sitting up, bringing him slightly parallel to her. Kayden coughed again, the feeling of his frozen state taking its toll on just waking up. His heart was beating sluggishly, trying to pump blood and energy to the nerves in his body to wake up.

He nearly closed his eyes to sleep again, when he felt his sister’s hands rubbing against his shoulders, bringing warmth to his icy-cold body. He shivered, coughing violently before his eyes fluttered in a near feverish daze. Finally, he looked again at the woman beside him. She looked slightly older than when he’d last seen her, but not by much. An adventure? He settled for a moment, relishing the warmth of his sister’s contact, her cheek atop his head. He shivered a few more times, just trying to warm up. Why was he so cold?

“H..How long have… I been… out?” He whispered, his voice struggling to gain the momentum needed to speak more than a word or two at a time. “Mom an…d dad? Amie?” Where was Amelie, mom, and dad? He remembered the trip to New Orleans, his argument with his sister, and his dad turning around to talk to his mother, but everything else was blank… except…

The screams. The crash. The Pain.

Kayden startled, letting out a wheezing gasp.

“What happened?” He croaked.
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Post by Holly 3rd March 2018, 5:07 pm

He tenses, and she closes her eyes.  She knows what he must be remembering, and she wishes she could shield him from it.  Waking up to remember the deaths of your parents and sibling is not something a fifteen-year-old should have to do, especially not one who's been in stasis for nearly a century.

"There was an accident, Kay, a really bad one.  The streetcar you, mom, dad, and Amie were on lost control going down a hill and went off its tracks."  Her throat tightens with every word she speaks, because she hates reliving the incident, and hates the fact that she has to explain to her brother that their parents and sister are nearly a century gone.

"Mom, dad, and A-Amie..." She exhales through her nose, steeling herself to say the words.  "They're gone, and I thought you were too.  The police told me they couldn't find you in the wreckage, and that you probably burned with the tram."

She has to swallow before she speaks again, trying to force the bubble of emotions to go away.  He deserves to hear this from her, not from some newspaper article or a google search, and it kills her.  This isn't how she wanted him to wake up, but it has to be done.  

"Somebody must have found you, put you to sleep, and kept you safe in ice.  When I found you, I had to thaw you out to get you here."  She pulls him tighter against her, still rubbing warmth into his chilled skin.  

"It's 2018 now, Kay.  You've been asleep for a long, long time."
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Post by Tyler 3rd March 2018, 5:50 pm

Blue-green eyes stared at his sister after his question, confused and more than a little disoriented still. When she opened his mouth to respond to his inquiry, he almost wished she hadn’t.

An accident. His parents and sister had been in an accident with the streetcar they were on. He remembers the pain, the feeling of a wheel embedding itself into his stomach and he gripped at his stomach in memory. Looking down, he could see a scar paled over where he remembered the pieces. It looked like such an old wound now… The teen’s hands traced over the scar lightly, until his sister spoke up again.

His heart plummeted, knowing that it was true they were gone, but still having held hope they survived like he evidently had. He swallowed heavily, choking back vomit at the memory of his sister’s body beside his own, the silence of his deceased parents. Why had he lived when they hadn’t? But… there’d been someone there…

Someone had iced him, she told him. Kayden’s eyes widened, mouth refusing to make a sound, as he processed what she told him. He’d been taken from the wreckage, bleeding out from his wounds, and put in a stasis. His stomach is sinking, even as Anais pulls him tightly to her, telling him a truth he somehow knew, a fact that was changing his entire perception.

99 years. He had been asleep for almost an entire 100 years. A year that people could only dream of, where he’d lived. He made a noncommittal sound, his hands reaching to tightly clutch Anais’s shirt, pressing his face into her shoulder as tight as he could.

“No… No no no,” he forced out into her chest, eyes squeezed tightly in disbelief. He couldn’t process what was worse. That he’d been the only survivor amongst his parents and sister, or that he was so far in the future that no one he knew would still be alive… except…

Pulling away, eyes brimming with unshed tears looked at his older sister. His sister who looked only a year or two older than before, for someone who should be past 100 years old. There wasn’t a wrinkle of aging on her forehead. “You… You look good for someone whose over 100,” he finally rasped, his voice stronger than before. A tear spilled from the brimming pool in his eyes, sliding down his cheek in a slow cascade and falling to splash lonely on his hand.
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Post by Holly 3rd March 2018, 6:19 pm

He presses his face into her collarbone, murmuring denials over and over again, and all she can do is hold him and press her face into his hair. It smells strangely sterile, and she makes a mental note to show him how to shower. The hot water will warm him up, and he'll hopefully feel better for being properly clean.

His statement is fair, though she has no way of explaining to him why she looks almost exactly the same as she did in 1919. He's dealing with enough as it is without her explaining to him that she's been gifted (or cursed, depending on the day) with extremely slow ageing and prophetic dreams. Overwhelming him won't help anything, and they have plenty of time to sort everything.

"It's a very long story, Kay," she sighs, pulling back to brush away the tears on his cheeks. Her heart aches for him, her baby brother who should have grown up in the 1920's, had a long life, and a normal death. Now he's here, an anachronism in the modern age, and she can only imagine how lost he feels. She feels the same sometimes, especially when she dreams of Luke, or the St. Marie, and then wakes up to a harsh reality.

"I'll explain everything, I promise, just not tonight." She tucks his head under her chin again, closing her eyes and soaking up the feeling of his shoulder pressed against her own. "We've both had a long night, and you need time to rest and process all of this."
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Post by Tyler 3rd March 2018, 6:34 pm

Kayden’s eyes follow Anais as her hand lightly brushes his cheeks, jolting the rest of his pooled tears to fall shortly after and be caught by her warm hand. He childishly sniffed, bringing his own hand up to rub at his eyes, pressing harder than necessary for a moment to stop more tears from welling up. He needed to be strong and not cry, as his father used to lecture. Boys didn’t cry.

He wondered what the story was, but perhaps people in this era found a way to stop aging, so he dropped the subject of it in favor of clenching onto her shirt tighter with his hand when she pulled him back toward her. He’d done this a lot when they were kids, always holding onto his older sister and never wanting to let go.

“I can’t believe they’re gone,” he whispered, his eyes burning with want to cry again, but he firmly blinked several times. “Everyone is, aren’t they? Even Uncle Raymond and cousin Bertha? No one is left… Not even my friends?” He asked this mostly to himself, squeezing his eyes shut tightly and pressing a cheek to her shoulder, shivering in the fading cold. He almost couldn’t process everything. Everything was changed so –so- much.

“What happens after that?” he finally asked. He didn’t even know what time it was, though a glance to the window (covered in items he couldn’t truly identify, and wasn’t that scary) showed the sun was gone and the moon shone through in faded light. “Will you stay with me Ani?” His eyes locked onto hers, afraid and lost beyond belief showing through.
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Post by Holly 3rd March 2018, 8:26 pm

She sighs, wrapping her other arm around his shoulders and squeezing him as tight as she can without hurting him. He's too observant for his own good sometimes, but he's not wrong. Someday she'll tell him about all of the good memories, with the St. Marie and Bertha, but not tonight. He's already hurting, and the last thing she wants to do is pour salt in his wounds.

"I'm not going anywhere," she mumbles, lifting the arm behind his shoulders to smooth her hand over the hair on the back of his head. He used to have a cowlick there, she remembers, though it seems his century in the ice has smoothed it down.

"I've got you, Kay. We're gonna get through this together," she promises, giving her brother a wan smile and a nod. "I'm not gonna let anything happen to you."

Her fear and pain are turning into resolve as she holds her brother and tries to drive the chill from his skin with the warmth of her own. He's had enough trouble to last a lifetime, and she's going to do everything in her power to make sure that he gets to have a normal life from here on out. Or at least as normal a life that can be had by a boy who was born before Prohibition.

The scientists may have seen her magic, but she doesn't care at the moment. She hopes they take it as a warning - a sign of what she can and will do to keep Kayden safe.
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Post by Tyler 4th March 2018, 6:53 pm

Kayden took the comfort provided to him silently, not moving from his position even as Anais ran a hand through his hair, remembering the many memories of when she’d done it before, fussing over the mess he tended to leave his brown locks as.

He appreciated the assurance, even though he didn’t know what the future would hold for him. Here he was –a boy almost set to finish his schooling back in the 1920s- left in a place where he didn’t know how to use anything, didn’t know anyone except his sister –and thank god he had her at least.

He sits there for a moment or two in silence, just focused on warming up with the contact from his overly-warm sister. He closes his eyes tiredly despite sleeping for a century. He felt blank, drawn in so many ways from all of these revelations. But he didn’t want to sleep just yet. But alas the warmth of his sister and the exertion alone has him slowly closing his eyes until they stayed that way, his weight leaning into his sister heavily as he fell asleep.

The next day dawned on them early, a flash of sunlight beaming into the window and shining into his eyelids. Kayden clenched his eyes before slowly blue-green orbs blinked blearily into the lit room, wondering where he was for a moment until slowly the memories of last night came back to him. He closed his eyes.

Right. He was in the year 2018. Most of his family was dead, except his older sister Anais. Thank god for small mercies…

Kayden bit his lip, looking to his left to spy his sister, her arms still wound around him. A small, fond smile appeared on his lips at the familiar sight, leaning into the hold before wriggling to escape the hold.

“Anais?” he spoke hesitantly, almost unsure if this was all real. “Where is your water closet?”
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Post by Holly 6th March 2018, 5:29 pm

She doesn't consciously realize she's dozing off, but the overwhelming sense of comfort that comes from Kayden's head on her shoulder and her arms around him soon leads her into unconsciousness.

She wakes with a start to blinding sunlight streaming through the window. Her arms have remained around Kayden's shoulders through the night, and her shoulders are aching. Lifting one arm, she swipes at the mussed blonde strands that have fallen over her face.

"Hmm?" She murmurs sleepily, blinking against the bright light until her brother's face comes into focus. He's looking at her expectantly, and she begins to register that he's asked her a question.

The water closet. Right.

"Bathroom is this way," she murmurs, extricating herself from him and slipping off the edge of the bed, gesturing for him to follow her out of the room and into the hall. The bathroom is down the hall on the left, and she pauses at the door to wait for Kayden.

"It's not called the water closet anymore. It's called the bathroom or washroom," she explains, leaning through the door frame to turn on the lights. "Just push the lever on the toilet when you're done, and make sure you wash your hands."

It feels strange to have to explain it, but she can hardly just leave him to figure it out on his own. He's incredibly clever, she knows, but when he's so worn out and stressed it wouldn't be fair to expect him to puzzle it out.

"I'll go make us some breakfast, and once we've eaten I'll show you how to shower." Another odd thing to explain, but it's necessary. He's a teenage boy, and as much as she loves him, she's woefully unprepared for dealing with the accompanying smells.

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Post by Tyler 6th March 2018, 7:17 pm

She didn’t answer right away, which Kayden figured was because she was still mostly sleeping. He would have left her, but he didn’t even know if their toilets were the same in this era. When she finally pulled away from him, Kayden shook his head in idle fondness for his sister. She certainly wasn’t as much of a morning person as he was, he remembered.

“Bathroom?” echoed Kayden in confusion, following her out of the room and down a hallway. He stopped, taking in the sight of the very sturdy looking halls, before hurrying after her until they paused in a doorway. He frowned, bemused. Didn’t they need to head outside to get to the water clos—the bathroom?

When a light flickered on into existence, Kayden peered into the room and a small gasp emitted from his lips. This was certainly… fancy looking. He’d grown up not in poverty, but not in high enough positions in the social standings to have an indoor water closet, and certainly none with such whiteness. There was what he guessed was the chamber pot and a washbowl beside one another, but more decorated with silver-appearing items attached.

“So it’s a room for the bath or wash?” asked Kayden as he stepped inside, looking at the lever with a raised eyebrow. He used a finger to pick up the removable part, blinking when it opened up with his hold and revealed the water of the toilet. Well he supposed he at least knew how to use the toilet, but he turned to his sister anyways.

“There’s no different… way to pee is there?” he asked with narrowed eyes. “And what the heck is a shower, An’?” The drawl was a little more pronounced at the end, his disbelief at what he was even dealing with this early in the morning clear. All in the name of peeing, he grumbled.
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Post by Holly 10th March 2018, 1:39 pm

The little gasp he makes when the light comes on and reveals the relatively plain tile and white appliances of the bathroom is both endearing and heartbreaking. It's amusing to see his brain trying to figure out the foreign devices, but it also reminds her of how out of his element he is.

She leans against the doorframe, letting him explore the space. When he asks a question about the name, she smiles and shakes her head. "Yes, and no," she replies, gesturing to the bathtub. "No more bathing in the old cast-iron tub, hence the 'bath' room. 'Washroom' generally refers to washing up, not washing your shirts and whatnot."

"The mechanics are the same, and I'll show you what a shower is later." She gives him a wan smile. "I'll go make us some breakfast."

He's smart enough to take it from here, she knows, and though she worries that he'll get overwhelmed and frustrated by all the new technology around him, she's certain he can figure out a bodily function on his own.

"Yell if you need anything," she adds, using the hair tie from her wrist to get her mussed blonde locks out of her eyes.
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Post by Tyler 18th March 2018, 8:32 pm

“Right,” the teenager murmured as his older sister abandoned him to take care of food ordeals. He watches as she pulls a rubber band from her wrist and puts her hair into the loop, blinking in surprise. Well that was certainly a new concept. His mother was always complaining about how annoying hair ties could be with tying her hair up, but his sister seemed to be lucky to not have the problem of the process.

“Okay Kayden DuPonte. You got this,” Kayden said to himself, turning back to the… toilet in front of him. Shrugging to himself, the lad went about taking care of his needs before poking at the lever curiously. He pressed down on it and nearly jumped in surprise when the sound of a flush was only partially audible.

Mission accomplished, he moved on to the washing station and set about washing his hands, prodding the dispenser-like bottle and pressing on it. A guilty grin flashed across his face when he may have squirted a large handful on the porcelain sink, but he pushed it toward the drain-looking bottom and turned the knobs to wash it away.

Feeling much like a child all over again, Kayden sighed at the whole ordeal and headed out of the washroom. He peered from left to right before following the direction he’d seen Anais go in.

“Your washing soap smells very strange, An’. It’s like…. Vanilla beans or cotton? I really couldn’t tell. But now my hands and a good portion of your sink smell of it.” Kayden called out unabashedly.
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Post by Holly 25th March 2018, 3:41 pm

What does one feed a century old teenager for breakfast? Anais frowns, racking her brains for ideas. Her diet is vastly different than what it was in her childhood, but she figures it would be better to serve Kayden something familiar so that he isn't overwhelmed. He's gonna have a long day as it is without having to worry about eating strange things.

Porridge should be familiar enough for him, so she grabs a bag of rolled oats from the pantry and puts a pot of water on to boil. A rush of water through the pipes over her head informs her that Kayden's figured out the bathroom without too much trouble, and she can't help but laugh softly. One new thing down, several thousand things to go.

"That's all right," she says, waving away his concern with a smile before returning to scooping tea leaves out of the canister and into a small paper teabag. "It's just soap. It'll wash away."

"Smells a lot nicer than the old bars, though," she adds, her smile turning wry as she remembers the old, cracked bars that used to lie on the side of the family sink. Plain soap and a scrub brush, often applied vigorously if they'd been out in the mud, had been the family bathing routine for years. The memory of prickly boar bristles on her skin makes her reach up and rub her upper arm out of habit.

"Breakfast will still be a few minutes. Do you want something to drink in the meantime?" she asks, lifting her hand from her arm to brush away a strand of hair that's fallen out of her bun. "I'm making tea, but there's milk, water, and juice if you'd rather have one of those."

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Post by Tyler 28th March 2018, 5:20 pm

“A lot nicer than the old bars, yes,” agrees the teenager as he enters the room fully. Kayden takes a moment to study his surroundings with fascination, taking in the sleek looking appliances that he could take in. He supposed the largest of them was an ice box of some sorts. He’d just heard rumors about refrigerators being created for the home when he was with his mother shopping for more produce, but he wondered if that was what he was looking at now. There was strangely enough plenty of counter work space and a few gizmos he had no idea what to place them as, but he knew he’d unfortunately find out at some point what they were.

The freckle-faced boy blinked at his eldest sister as she rubbed at her arms, wondering if she was perhaps remembering the soap bars he had used just recently in his own memories. The brunette made his way to the table and seated himself, chewing on his lower lip before contemplating the options.

“Milk is fine, An’.” He answered. A gust of wind from somewhere indoors slapped against his bare skin and he shivered, realizing something. Kayden frowned, looking down at himself for the first time. He could see the near faded scar at the back of his elbow clear as day, some of the scratches and cuts faded from his body as if preserved. To his sickening thoughts, he traced his fingers over the healed scar of what he could clearly remember was the streetcar’s wheels lodged deep into his stomach, something that had had to have been removed and healed over by the stranger. The scar was gruesome, making Kayden wince in horror.

“Anais?” Kayden spoke up. “May I borrow clothes from you? I seem to… erm… be missing my own. Was this how you found me?” The thought of being frozen over for years on end in only his knickers was too unbearable to think about.
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Post by Holly 1st August 2018, 10:10 pm

She didn't realize what he was talking about until she looked up and realized that her baby brother was sitting at her kitchen counter in nothing but his skivvies. In the rush of emotion and excitement, she'd forgotten to dress him, or even find him something to wear. She could hardly let him walk around half-naked.

"Ah," she huffed, embarrassed by her lapse. "You were dressed when I found you. Your clothes were soaked, and I was worried that you'd be too cold to wake up if I didn't take them off. Sorry, Kay."

She supposed she could mend his clothes if only to give him something to wear until she can get to a store, but he'd look quite strange. Drawing attention is the last thing they want to do, especially since the men in the warehouse saw her face.

"I'll find something," she assured him. "I'll be right back. Shout if the water starts to boil."

She knew she at least had a shirt for him - a plain undershirt left behind by a one night stand - that should fit him reasonably well. Her pants would all be too tight, but he might fit a pair of her sweats, and she could probably find him a pair of sandals or something.

The shirt was buried at the bottom of her drawers, and the sweats likewise buried in her closet. It took her much longer than it should, but she returned to the kitchen with her arms full and a triumphant smile on her lips.

"Just a t-shirt and sweatpants I'm afraid," she said by way of explanation. "They'll have to do until I can take you shopping - you won't fit much else of mine."
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