body electric;;

It had started raining out, and Maddie was staring at it hitting the ground and making puddles as it landed. Hearing a sound next to her, the brunette turned and looked at the person. “I am so sorry. Here let me move these.” She said moving the files out of the other seat. 

To say it was raining, was mostly an understatement. Tipping, pouring, pretty close to storming. Luckily, Issy had managed to wriggle her way inside a coffee shop, and purchased a neatly made cup before wandering over towards a table with an extra chair. "Oh, thanks. Raining cats and dogs outside now." She chuckled.

The good part of having days off was not driving into the city, which entitled not being as exhausted and actually going out of her home for some human interaction. There she was in the pick hour at the bar, enjoying of, well, a few to many drinks. She was already loopy and laughed at mostly anything anyone said. “Well, if I didn’t know better I say you’re trying to compete with my drinking, in which case I have to say you will win because I’m not very exceptional at handling my liquor.” She said with her tick accent, that only seemed ticker when she drank. 

Issy had had one, maybe two too many. She knew she probably shouldn't be drinking alone, not when there were things to do, things to sort out. Yet here she was, all the same, the list in the back of her mind, but the drink right there in front of her. "You know, neither am I, which is why after this one I should probably stop." She told her, though it was more of a mental note to herself.

Pushing aside the dressing room curtain, Issy all but stormed out to show Sierra the dress she'd made her try on. "I know you liked the bright, vibrant colour and everything, but I look like a fucking lemon." She couldn't help but laugh.

@sierra-moore

A smile crossed Emil’s face as she spoke. “We would love that,” he said. “He is starting preschool this week, perhaps we will come to celebrate the end of summer.” Emil held out his hand for a handshake. “My name is Emil, by the way.”

“Neither am I,” she said with a little laugh but nodded her head towards the woman. “Which means you don’t have to believe me, but I think it looks amazing. It’s even better than anything that I could do. It’s good nice, I promise.”

                       “—— Ahh. See, I just knew you had magician blood. I can’t explain how, but I knew. A Houdini? In my presence? I’m not worthy.” He bowed his head to top off his jest, a soft laugh parting his lips a moment later, yet it teetered out just as fast as it came when realization reminded him of their exact predicament; locked in a basement of a bar he had never been to before, and no one around to know. A deep breath swelled his chest, hands coming up to run through his dark hair as hazel eyes ran across their predicament, professionally assessing an immediate alternative. His hands dropped, a deep sigh left him when their only viable option came to be something subpar. He offered her a soft smile regardless, and nodded his head to beckon her to follow. “We can wait here, kicking at the door in hopes that someone’s about to make the same mistake as us, or we can go explore. Look for a way out. Use your escapist senses to help us.”

"I mean, if you knew, then maybe you're magic too." Raising an eyebrow, she crossed her arms, and wandered across to one of the closest walls, examining the boxes here and there, that lay across the wooden shelves. Issy listened to the other's proposal, considering both sides though she ultimately knew which one she'd agree with. "Well, my escapist senses are just buzzing, to help out, so let's go on a little adventure down here, see if we can get out, or.. you know, get kidnapped in the process." She joked, shaking her head a little bit. Raising one of her hands towards the open door at the end of the room, she smiled. "After you?"

“I can’t.” His eyes squeezed tight, his fingers at his temples, wishing more than anything that he could block out the sound of the blood rushing through his ears. Wishing he could direct it where he wanted it, slow it down, make it stop. 

He wished he could just make time stop. What would he do if he had that kind of power? How far would he go? Would he go back and pick up that last phone call? Would that have been enough? Or would he have to have gone back further? The first day he talked to Issy? The day his father accept that job? Or was all of it inevitable? Did he have to go all the way back and wish that his brother had never been born? 

All he knew was that he had failed. He couldn’t change time. He’d failed as a brother. He’d failed out of med school. He was failing his relationship. He was failing Issy. He loved her. In as much as he believed in the word and in the concept, he did. How long until his failings destroyed her? 

“I can’t,” he began again, tears welling back up in his eyes. “I can’t lose you, but I can’t be what you need me to be. I just… I think I’m a lost cause…” 

Issy's heart was still beating hard from before - probably loud enough for Elijah to hear, if his thoughts weren't loud enough already. There had been so many times, the silence of the apartment filled with a question or two from the blonde, but hit back with nothing as Elijah was simply.. elsewhere. In his mind. He always was.

Sometimes Issy would think to herself, what was she doing? Why was she still there, after a year, a whole year of empty responses, a lack of intimacy, no communication. Why did she do it. She loved him, she'd ration with herself. Love him to no lengths, and she still believed that there was a way out of himself, to get back to the man she loved. The man he really was.

To hear that he thought he was a lost cause, broke Issy's heart. If she had to compare it, feeling this for him, was so much worse than a break up.

Emil smiled at her in return. “Is that so? My son would love to hear from you. He loves dinosaurs, although I suppose so do most small children – there is a fascination about them that never really leaves us, I think. The idea that such fantastical creatures existed, here, on the same planet we are on now, has always amazed me.”

Issy adored it when she heard that others were interested in her line of work, particularly children. She knew that a majority of the other tour guides were - true - interested in history, but not to the extent of which she had; she'd been interested in it since she could read. "No way? You two should drop by the museum some time, I'll give you a tour." She smiled.

“You definitely have,” said Hazel and smiled. She was no expert at all, but she could tell when something looked good and when it didn’t - and the ad that Issy had made was definitely good. “You’re welcome, you earned the praise.” She meant that, which was probably quite clear from the light smile on her lips. “Oh, not much. I don’t really have any plans honestly - I just go where the twins go.” She nodded towards the stroller. It was a joke of course, but she was definitely a slave to whatever they needed. “What about you?”

Being around Hazel, made the atmostphere all happy and light. Issy was sure that a lot of the feeling had to do with the innocence of her newly born twins, and yet since she'd known the other, she'd always felt like a weight was lifted off her shoulders, when they spoke. "Well, maybe we could all do something?" She suggested, a soft smile covering her lips as she looked at the children, before back to her friend.

“Sorry,” Adri muttered when the door to the closed bedroom opened. Her intent had been to bring her coat and return to the party, but she couldn’t help the temptation to lay down for a few minutes before entering the crowded house. She hadn’t expected this much people, nor had she anticipated the slight pressure on her temple that signalled a soon to be full blown headache. “I just needed a few moments to take a breather. Did you need to put your coat down on the bed?”

The only reason Issy had gone to the party was because she needed to get away from the house, and do something fun for a change. But she'd been there for an hour and all she could think about was her stupid boyfriend. Wandering upstairs to grab her coat, she noticed someone on the bed, just getting up. "Oh, no.. just getting my coat actually." She shrugged. "Not exactly having the best time, don't wanna be a party pooper."

                         “—– No, no, no. You’re kidding me here…” Panic prickled pins and needles up and down his spine at the sound of the door groaning shut, a cruel click following suit, and the realization the door did not lock from the inside. The male’s movements dripped of faint desperation as he tried to force the door open, to no avail. "—Shit..” The curse left him quietly through a heated breath, and after a baited moment, he turned to face his partner in entrapment. “…. you don’t happen to be a distant relative of Houdini, or Chris Angel, or any escape artist, do you? Any magician blood at all?” A small, barely there curl of his lips could be seen, but it shortly faltered in favour for a sheepish look as his hand came to rub at the back of his neck, a sharp breath sucked in between his teeth. “… because if not, I’d say we’re kinda screwed here.”

Issy had finished meeting her friend for a quick drink before she had to head home, when she realised just how desperately she needed the loo. It was a bar that the blonde hadn't ever been to before, and she hadn't a clue where they were; the signs weren't very clear and she simply found herself wondering in one direction hoping it was the right one. True, it didn't look as if there should be any toilets down there, but bars nowaday loved the industrial look. Turning around when a door shut down the hall, she quickly went to see what it was when she found a familiar face attempting to scratch his way through. "Oh yeah, it's a well known fact that my dad wasn't only a palaentologist, but also the best escape artist of the twentieth century." Issy shook her head, sighing. "We're a little screwed if you can't get that door open."

Emil smiled at her in return. “That sounds like a very interesting job,” he said. “I love going to museums. I have always nursed dreams of being a historian, to be honest. I am rather fascinated by the Tudors and the Wars of the Roses, although I suppose that’s a quite cliche period of history to be interested in.”

“Well, in that case then, I’m your gal.” Claudia grinned, looking again at the screen before back at the girl. “I like it. It makes you want to look at it but it’s not too…obnoxious, you know?”

"Not too in your face?" Issy questioned, biting down on her lower lip as she looked at the screen again. "Good. Good, that means they might actually like it." She chuckled, shaking her head. "Well-- thank you for your input, uhm--.. sorry, I didn't quite catch your name?"

                          Sierra gave her an unamused glare and shrugged, “I haven’t had sex in a month. If I wasn’t so anti-person right now, I would take the next person who walked through that door—” The door opened and Sierra looked up at an elderly man, hunched over a walking stick and screwed her face up. “Maybe not literally…” Though the thought of being with anyone else did make her feel uneasy and her chest ached, once again. A frown took over her face as she sighed and looked back at the poster, “It’s nice Issy. I like it.”

"You're kidding, right?" Issy replied, with a tilt of her head. She knew Sierra and her now ex-boyfriend had broken up, and she didn't expect her friend to simply walk up to the next person and ask for a one night stand. But that wasn't the point; "I can't even remember the last time I had sex. And I'm in a long term relationship." She told her pointedly before smiling. "Okay good, because I'm not changing it anymore. I've spent minutes on this thing."

“You’re very welcome,” said Hazel and beamed a smile in Issy’s direction, happy that she could have been of any help. Their jobs were far from similar and Hazel knew she would have never survived a day in her shoes - she wouldn’t know what to do at all, let alone how to make it look good, so she obviously admired the other woman greatly for her talent and skills. “Well either way, I think you’ve done a great job, so you’re safe.”

"God, I can only hope." Issy breathed a laugh, before shaking her head. Truthfully, with things going on at home, and being away for a while for work, she'd wished that Elijah had been the one around her to see the completed advertisement. Though knowing him, he'd have awkwardly nodded despite not understanding what she was doing. "Thanks, Hazel. Means a lot." The blonde took a quick glance and the time before biting down on her lip. "What're you up to for the rest of the day?"