tampered | [closed / active] late at night when all the world is sleeping ...

[closed / active] late at night when all the world is sleeping ...

When; November 2nd/3rd, 2010 - Late, late night. Like, around midnightish.
Rating; PG? Probably very tame.
Characters; Rita Mordio [

blastiafreak] and Estellise Sidos Heurassin [

make_it_bloom]
Summary; Estelle can't sleep ~~without Rita in bed with her~~.
Log;
After several hours of tossing and turning in bed, Estelle finally spent several more hours laying in bed on her back, staring up at the ceiling. She was lonely. And while she knew why (not that she would admit to it out loud), she kept debating on whether or not she should get out of bed and try and solve the problem.

After it looked like she just wasn't going to fall asleep no matter what she tried, though, she got up, changed, packed up a few things, and made her way out of the house. She knew where she was going, and while she wasn't sure if she'd be allowed to stay for long, she figured the 'just-in-case' would be a good thing to have.

City Solutions was an easy enough trip. She was there faster than she thought she would be (was it just her, or was she hurrying? she didn't know), and she managed to get herself into the building. She made her way to the room she was aiming for, poking her head inside.

"Rita ..?" She asked quietly.

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With a chemical reaction bubbling away on one benchtop, Rita was seated at a desk cutting some rubber tubing. Even now, hours later, her mind was lingering on Estelle's strange behaviour. What was that all about? It sort of worried her, made her wonder if something was wrong that Estelle didn't want to talk about...

"Ah-"

She was startled out of her thoughts--not by Estelle, who she didn't hear, but by a sharp pain in her index finger. While her mind wandered, her hand had slipped and she'd accidentally cut it. It wasn't anything serious, at least, and the knife was sterile.

A thin trickle of blood dripped from the blade and Rita found herself reminded of a bloody scalpel. And now she felt almost nauseated, her hand shaking.

Edited 2010-11-03 04:05 (UTC)

It was dark, but as soon as she heard Rita's voice, Estelle could tell something had happened. She dropped her bag in the doorway and rushed over to where she heard the voice coming from. As soon as she saw Rita, she made her way over, taking the hand with the bloody finger into her hands and bowing her head for a moment to focus on a healing spell.

"First Aid!" She whispered, causing a familiar light to surround Rita and heal the small cut. Estelle opened her eyes and offered Rita a sheepish smile.

Rita was so stunned that for a second she thought she was imagining things and couldn't say anything. But that very familiar spell confirmed that yes, Estelle was really there.

"E-Estelle...? W-what are you doing?" How long had she been there? Obviously long enough to see her little slipup, as stupid as it was.

Estelle let go of Rita's hand and clasped her hands together nervously, looking away from Rita and blushing a little.

"... healing you?"

Well, yes, dear. But that's only part of it. She was quiet for several moments before she spoke again; it was as if she were trying to figure out what she could say. In the end, though, there was really only one thing that could be said.

"I couldn't sleep."

She might've said something about that being obvious but her other hand, the one holding the knife, was still trembling--she let go of the tool and curled her fingers to try and hide it, or stop it.

Confusion took over from Estelle's statement, though, and Rita took a moment before she cautiously asked, "But...why'd you come here?"

"... I don't know."

Estelle knew full well why. But she wasn't quite sure how to explain it to Rita, and that seemed like the best way to handle it at the moment. She managed to look back at Rita, barely catching a glimpse of that trembling hand. A look over at the scalpel that she'd just put down gave her all that was needed to put together what might have been happening here.

She took that trembling fist in her hands and bit her lip.

She wasn't sure what else she could do for her, really. This was beyong what healing artes could do.

Although Rita started at first, her hand stopped its shaking in Estelle's grip and she eased up a little. "Th-this was...it was just stupid," she mumbled in an attempt to brush it off.

More importantly, she still couldn't figure out what was wrong with Estelle. Her friend's vague answers weren't really helping her concern. "Estelle...You're sure you're all right?"

Rita's hand wasn't shaking anymore. Good. She helped. But she still had to face Rita's game of 20 questions.

... Estelle wasn't so sure that she was prepared for that one. She slowly nodded her head.

Yes. Aside from insomnia, she was all right.

Rita wasn't entirely convinced, but it wasn't really like she had any reason to doubt her friend, either...It was just that unknowns bothered her. Approach the problem from a different perspective. A strategy that worked when it came to equations and formulas, maybe it would help here.

Finally, she managed a slight smile. "Oh--uh, thanks. For healing it." Even if it was just a small one. "So you said you couldn't sleep?"

Estelle smiled in return. "You're welcome."

She looked around the lab a little bit, at all of the things Rita was occupied with. There certainly were a lot of thigns ...

But then her voice broke her thoughts again, and she looked back to Rita and nodded.

"Yes. I tried. For several hours, I just ... laid there."

That didn't exactly sound promising, but it wasn't too out of the ordinary, either. Rita tried to remember if something weird had happened--Estelle had been writing her story...oh.

And as far as the mage was concerned, most of it made sense now. "Were you still thinking about your story?"

Uh.

Well.

"N-Not exactly ..." Estelle seemed sheepish.

"I figured the rest would just come to me whenever."

"Oh." So much for that--and she was sure she'd had it figured out! Her frustration became a small frown while she tried to puzzle it out again, but eventually Rita put it aside. As long as it wasn't anything serious, she could figure it out later. For now, she wanted to get back to one of her first questions.

"Isn't it kind of weird to come all the way over here just because you're having trouble sleeping?"

Estelle looked away again, folding her hands together in front of her and remaining quiet for another few moments.

"I guess I just didn't know what else to do. I can leave if you'd like."

"N-no, that's--" Rita stamered nervously, feeling a litle guilty. There she went again, as usual. "It's fine! I don't mind if you stay."

In fact, she didn't want Estelle to go at all. Besides the fact that it was the middle of the night...Rita wanted her to stay.

Estelle smiled a little again, averting her gaze back toward Rita.

"You're sure? You really don't mind it?"

"Of course I don't. I mean, you came all the way over here and everything..." Rita trailed off awkwardly and glanced away, but it was a relief to see Estelle more cheerful again.

Estelle's smile grew a little bit.

"Thank you, Rita!"

"It's no big deal," was Rita's answer, though secretly she was happy. Usually she preferred working alone, and she managed just fine, really. It was just that sometimes the place seemed a little empty or too quiet--probably because all she could hear then was that awful ticking.

The only issue was that her lab wasn't set up for company. There weren't any comfortable sofas or storybooks or even much in the way of food. Oh well, Estelle probably wouldn't mind. "I guess you can sit down somewhere--make yourself at home."

Estelle looked around for a place to sit, but seeing as there were none ... she took a different approach.

"Is there anything I can help you with, actually?" She asked.

"If you want to," Rita answered, though she wondered for a moment if it was such a good idea. Estelle didn't really know the intricacies of what she was doing...but Rita couldn't really refuse her like this. Besides, it wasn't like she couldn't explain some of it.

The nausea from earlier had long since disappeared, so Rita stood and tapped her chin for a second. "Maybe you could help me record some readings."

Estelle smiled brightly, clasping her hands together excitedly.

"I would love to, Rita! Just let me know what I can do and I'll do my best to help you out!"

Her enthusiasm was somewhere between heartening and worrisome. Rita would make sure to keep her away from the dangerous equipment and chemicals.

Still, she smiled. "All right, then I'll take some measurements and...you can write them down. Here," she said, rummaging through a junkpike and finding some paper.

Estelle nodded, determined to do her duty well enough and help Rita out. She took the paper when it was handed to her, looking around for a writing utensil of some sort. She found one, then prepared to begin writing whenever Rita was ready.

"Do you want this in, ah .. a chart of any sort?"

"Yeah, a table's good. Let's see..." Rita organized her thoughts before absentmindedly reciting a list. "I'll be making some spectroscopic measurements below the visual region...and I've got a few different methods here, so you can make headings for absorption, optical density, and--oh, better include the solutions, too."

So much for explaining things, as Rita continued rattling off the names of some chemical compounds.

Estelle couldn't help but giggle at Rita as she rambled.

"Rita," she said softly, hoping to break through her rant.

"How about we start with organizing the table before I begin filling it in."

It got through, and Rita halted midsentence, blinking. "Oh, uh, yeah. I guess we could do that. Here-" She came close, brushing up against Estelle while she scribbled some column headings on the paper.

The closeness caused Estelle's cheeks to flush a little bit, but she forced her concentration a little more on what Rita was writing.

Too caught up in what she was writing to notice, Rita continued on obliviously until she had it set up to her satisfaction. She straightened up, inspected it again, and nodded to herself. "Okay, this should do it."

To anyone not Rita, the writing was probably bordering on illegible.

Estelle squinted at the paper, trying to make some sort of sense out of the writing that was on there.

... well, she could be nice and not say anything. But that wouldn't get anything done, would it? She was able to pick out various letters and figure out the words from there, though, thank God. Once she knew what everything said, she would be able to help more from there.

She nodded.

"All right."

It sort of seemed like Estelle was looking at it for a long time, but Rita didn't really pay attention. She moved away again, checking on the reaction she had running. It wasn't quite ready, so she leaned against a clear area of the benchtop and attempted to explain the basis of what she was doing.

"I'm going to try out a few different methods for binding mana in a solid inactive state. I've figured out the most likely theories--we just need the best one that can be achieved with the safest procedure."

She nodded. "Right. Just let me know what to write and I'll write it."

By the way, Rita, expect Estelle to be doodling on the corners of the paper when you're not telling her to write stuff down.

And Rita will end up wondering what those are supposed to represent...

In the meantime, she gave Estelle a confident look. "If the main experiment works out, it might just be our way home. We can say good riddance to this crazy place."

Her eyes lit up at the mention of home.

"Really!? That would be so wonderful!" But then she thought about all the friends they had made here, and her tone saddened a little bit. It was for the benefit of everybody, yes, but ...

"What about everyone else? Will we ever see them again?"

Yes, home--something Rita didn't think was all that important once. Now she wanted nothing more than to go back to what was familiar and normal.

Still, she did feel a little regret at Estelle's question, even if there was nothing she could do about that. "No, once we're...Once everyone's back home in their own worlds, I don't think that'll possible."

Estelle looked away sadly. So then ... everyone would never see each other again? All the friends they had made here suddenly would be out of reach?

Even the people she considered family, like Shing?

She shook her head.

"Finding a way to make travel between worlds happen would be great, but it isn't really within our reach, is it ...?"

It sort of saddened Rita too, but she wasn't about to lie to Estelle. "No, not right now. I mean, I could theorize some methods though it'd be dependent on whether we even all exist in the same physical universe. Even then..." Even then, the odds of finding the right world or of everyone existing in the same time were low. To say nothing of the problems they'd have to focus on in their own world.

As much as she might've wanted it, they couldn't both escape the City and keep in touch with their new friends.

"...I'd miss them too, Estelle," she mumbled.

Estelle nodded.

"But going home would be great for everybody," she admitted, putting on a determined face.

"So ... let's get on with the calculations, shall we?"

Looking at the bigger picture. Estelle's good at it. Sort of.

Rita also agreed, her expression darkening for a moment. "Yeah...After this month, I've had enough." More than enough. Thankfully she didn't have to spend too much time being gloomy, since everything was ready. Doing calculations, solving equations, running experiments--something to keep busy and keep her mind off of everything else.

And having Estelle there too was kind of nice.

Right now, Estelle was happy just to be around Rita. She smiled a little, nodding. This past month had definitely been really bad to the both of them.

"Right. So let's get to work."

The mage was already on it, making transfers, dilutions, and a number of other preparations. "I definitely don't want to wait around for the City to get sick of us," she grumbled in the meantime. Although she kept her eyes fixed on her work, she waffled a little before adding, "I don't want anything li--anything to happen to you, Estelle. So the sooner we're out, the better."

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[closed / active] late at night when all the world is sleeping ...

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s-sorry I am so late baby, I was out most of the day. ♥

no problem~♥ been doing homework myself, so it's all good!

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;3; sorry it took so long baby ...

no problem! <3

<3333!

♥

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♥ forever~!

So much ♥~!

~♥~

~♥~♥~♥~

dancing hearts! X)

yaaaay! /o/

X3

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