Strange Rein

“You are?” Iann asked, in genuine surprise.  It wasn’t a sarcastic question, it was more that Rein hardly expressed gratitude, and certainly not for something as abstract as ‘helping him on a growth journey’.  He tilted his head, staring at Rein in some wonderment and a lot of fondness.  

“Rein, you really are changing.  Don’t let that scare you.  There’s no going back now, hm?  Somethings when you see, you can never unsee.”  Even if that ‘thing’ was Rein seeing himself.

He laughed in jovial sympathy at the idea of Rein being a resting place for voiding birds.  “Oh man, that must’ve sucked when you shifted into flesh again.  Gyah.  No wonder you didn’t stay as a statue for long periods of time.  Damn birds!” 

Iann nudged Rein aside and looked through the microscope again, humming lowly as he tried to process what he saw.  “Must be something like that,” he surmised.  “Whatever it is, alls I can tell is it’s not normal blood.  But then what else did I expect - you are a nymph.  Of course your blood is gonna be elemental.”  It made Iann pause, wondering if Rein even needed blood at all.  Magic could be a baffling sort of science.  

“I’m gonna show these to Ciara, and then we’ll find out once and for all if Copper’s an extension of you, hm?  For now, the only thing I can see is that you both have a high concentration of metal in your blood - yours more than his, and that your blood isn’t…really…blood.  Or it is blood, but just metal.”  Iann grinned, and made goat’s horns with his fingers, because saying it was ‘metal’ was a pun on the music genre.  “Rock on, hermano.”

Rein looked Iann right in the eyes and nodded as a confirmation. At first he looked dead serious, but when Iann said sometimes were something you can’t unsee, a grin started to form on his lips. “There definitely are some things you can’t unsee.” He wasn’t talking about him being whatever he was, he was clearly pulling the topic to the more twisted, yet lighter, one. He didn’t want to think the darker topics at the moment.

“Getting bird droppings off of you is surprisingly hard. But hey, some people say it’s lucky if you get shat on by a bird, and then there’re some who say it’s good for your hair. I’m not really feeling like either has been a case with me, but then again, I never was just a random person walking around since I was being a statue. So I guess I can only blame myself in that case.”

The nymph stepped aside letting Iann take a better look at the microscope, but he kept a close eye on Iann’s reactions. He wanted to see what Iann thought about what he saw. As they sort of agreed on what was going on with the blood, Rein nodded his head and then nodded again when he said he’d let Ciara take a look. But then all that nodding turned into a shaking head. “I hate metal music”, he commented, but there was a tiny grin on his lips. They definitely should have a talk about music one day..

“Me neither,” Iann agreed, but he was frowning curiously at Rein’s arm as he took the syringe from Rein.  He pointed at Rein’s arm.  “Did you see that?  The bit of metal.  Like…some sort of defense mechanism your body instinctively makes.”  Twisting his mouth to the side, Iann turned back to his microscope, to prepare the blood for viewing.

“Must be on account of…ah…what happened.”  Iann glanced behind him for a moment a Rein.  “With those nymphs who tortured you.”  Perhaps he shouldn’t have been so blunt about that, but it was Iann.  He didn’t see the need to use euphemisms, particularly not with Rein who was so outspoken himself.  He smiled, a little sadly. 

“I suppose developing a little self-preservation is a good thing.  Vulnerability’s a hard lesson to learn.”  Most humans learned it early on, while growing up and getting into some situation where they realized they weren’t impervious to injury or danger.  Nymphs had to learn in other ways.  Not only that, but Rein first learned of his physical vulnerability, and then later his emotional vulnerability.  A one-two punch, of sorts.  Still, Iann couldn’t bring himself to consider this a bad thing.  The world was not all rainbows and lollipops.  Anyone who lived in this world had to learn that, sooner or later.

When he got Rein’s blood under the microscope, he peered at it, then switched to Copper’s slide, then back to Rein’s.  He motioned for Rein to come over.  “Take a look,” he said grimly.

“I did”, Rein said, frowning a bit at it. Iann’s mention of the events from few years ago Rein went silent for a bit but then just huffed softly. “Yeah, probably. Or it might have always been there, I just never had noticed it. That really wouldn’t be anything new because we both know there’s a bunch of shit I know nothing about even though it’s all about myself.” Rein looked at his arm but then looked at Iann in the eye. “But I’m grateful you’ve been helping me out finding about the stuff about myself for all these years. It means a lot to me.”

“During those years of traveling I often just disappeared into different metal structures and if there wasn’t any metals around I just turned into a statue. Those always kept me safe. Although it did cause a lot of bird shit on my clothes and my hair, sometimes even on my nose.” He chuckled a bit. “I’d be a really bad scarecrow.” But Iann wasn’t wrong that the emotional vulnerability was the one that had hit Rein with a rather heavy hammer. Especially lately. Rein was still sure it was all because he had been letting people getting close to him, getting to know him, and himself getting attached to them. If he’d still be only traveling around there most likely would be no need for emotional vulnerability because you’re always on the move.

“Ahhhhh, ‘weird’ would be an understatement? More like hellish disturbing and intensely painful nightmare,” Iann snorted.  He would’ve made some crass joke about fisting or gerbils, but decided they’d already gotten well off-track.  Although he did make a mental note, if he remembered, to somehow find a way to get Rein to bawk like a chicken.  Or maybe crow like a rooster - either would be good.

“If only everyone was kinky and wise, huh?” Iann said, then looked down at the needle when Rein mentioned doing it himself.  The nymph had a good point - sticking an needle into a metal nymph might be counter productive.

“Oh yeah, I remember that,” Iann said slowly, as Rein reminded him about that potion, the glow of his blood.  “Why don’t you give it a try then? If only so we get enough of a sample to compare it with Copper’s blood sample, hm?  Whatever you can get me.”

Rein just chuckled at the idea of nightmarish egg laying. It definitely would be odd and so many other things if that’d be a possibility. Right now it definitely was good Iann wasn’t able to create eggs in any possible way.

He shook his head at his friend’s comment, still grinning at this whole kinky -thing, and took the needle from him. The nymph investigated his arm a bit, tapped the inner elbow -area to find a good vein and once he was quite sure there was one to poke he outstretched his arm a bit more and went for it. Sure, he probably should have put somethign on his upper arm to slow down the blood flow and make the vein appear more, but he didn’t feel like trying to find something right now. Plus Rein was quite sure he would be able to get it right even without that.

“I wish!  I wish I could lay eggs,” Iann sighed wistfully, then bubbled into a small laugh.  It was truly nonsensical talk, but it was fun nonetheless.  He and Rein had that sort of dynamic sometimes, when they just wanted to be foolish for the sake of being foolish. It was mild and harmless and maybe a little Latino, the constant joshing at each other for a laugh.  “If I laid eggs you’d have to come keep them warm for me.”

He nodded and pat Rein’s hand, never quite knowing how to take nice words spoken about a relationship that Iann himself felt so shaky about.  It was different with his second wife, with whom Iann had been so sure, only to have that knocked out for under him. And with Tuah, it had been a needy sort of sure, someone to cling to and point at and say ‘yes, this is mine and I am his’.  With Ciara it was different, and yet Iann couldn’t say it was a bad or ominous different.  

Just new.  Which, being Iann, fascinated him even if he didn’t know how to socially handle it.  

But Rein’s last words - that even if it didn’t last long, at least it would be worth it - struck Iann and he looked over at the nymph.  Iann pat at Rein’s smooth face.  “I stand corrected.  You’re kinky and wise.  Sometimes, when you’re not trying ot be wise.” He grinned, turning his pat into a cheek-pinch.

Excited now, Iann got another needle, and prepared it.  “We should check and see, hm?  Give me your arm and let’s do a little comparison.  I’ve never analysed nymph blood before, this is exciting. I’ll bet you all have completely different ideas of what blood cells look like and behave like.”

“Wouldn’t it be weird that one day you’d just shit out an egg?” It was somewhat disturbing thought but then again, it was something that was definitely a possibility. Maybe not in case of Iann laying eggs, but in this world of supernaturals it probably would be possible that there was someone who could do that, for a reason or another. “Warm your eggs?” he asked, trying really hard not to start laughing at the thought that popped in his head because of that. “I’m not going to cluck like a chicken tho.”

Hearing that he was ‘kinky and wise’ Rein’s brow raised and he definitely looked a bit too amused by those words. “I never thought to hear those words in the same sentence, even less as words to describe me.” He made a face when the cheek patting turned into a pinch, but you could still see that he was smiling despite all of that.

Iann’s eyebrows raised at Rein’s proclamation, which to Iann seemed to come out of nowhere.  He gave the nymph a down-turned smile, unsure what to say until Rein countered his praise with a tease.  That, Iann knew better how to handle, and he grinned too.  “Well, cuckoos also secretly lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, so when their babies hatch, the other bird has to raise them with their own chicks…a little impostor.  So ‘cuckoo owl’ seems really apt. I’ll take it.” 

Rein was definitely right about the stigma, an on-going circle of suspicion and distrust and countless examples to demonstrate why all types of carrion witches shouldn’t be trusted.  Iann himself could list a few right off the bat - and some of those examples, in a way, even came from Ciara herself.  

Iann looked through the microscope, then turned on more light in the basement and looked again, making some adjustments.  He also took three drops of blood on a dish, and then found other liquid reagents to drop into the blood, inspecting the results of reaction of Copper’s blood.  

He couldn’t help the grin on his face chocking slightly as Rein - Rein!  Of all people - loaded his follow-up with innuendo.  “You kinky old bastard!” Iann laughed, but then added a shrug, using his hands to motion as he talked.  “All three!  All three - we’re, ah.  We’re together I guess. And she’s incredible.  Plus she says she loves me which y’know, is always kind of a bonus when you’re thinking…ah…when you love them back.”

Iann was about to say ‘thinking long-term’ but the truth was he didn’t know about long-term, with Ciara.  Unable to stop himself, he said,  “Thing is, she’s never had a relationship longer than a year.  Not that I have so great track record myself.  Longest relationship I managed to keep was like…three years.  And that was when I was a dumb kid.”

He then shrugged continually and said,  “Y’know, just magic.  Like…healing and blood-related stuff. Protection…”  

Lifting the dish with the drops of blood, he pointed at one - “Ah-ha!  Here we are.  This is supposed to indicate a high metal content, turn the blood a bright purple.  Well–”  Iann pointed to the drop of blood, which was now a virulent purple.  “What I see in under the microscope kind of confirms it, take a look.  Those blood cells are…definitely not just animal.”

“Are you laying eggs in others’ nests?” Rein asked teasingly, clearly poking the funny bone with his words. Talking about nonsense like this definitely worked as a way to stay away from the morpid topics that were shadowing Rein’s mind. But Rein did consider Iann liking these idiotic things he ended up saying, so that was a good thing as well.

Rein kept a close eye on whatever Iann was doing -- Rein had always been interesting to see how all this scientic stuff happened and it was fascinating to watch someone being so focused on something. He wasn’t sure what Iann was seeing but it was interesting to watch him concentrate on this so much. Although when Iann looked at him and started to laugh Rein just grinned widely as a respond. “All three? Now who in here is that kinky old bastard huh?” And then he laughed too, but then the laugh turned into a smile. “I’m happy for you”, he put his hand on Iann’s shoulder and gave it a small squeeze. “It’s great you two have found each other.”

When Iann added that it might not be long termed Rein ended up frowning, but then a small smile returned. “Well you are a dumb adult now, so who knows how long this’ll last. And even if it won’t last long, I’m sure it’ll be worth it all.” Which brought back the thought of Rein’s own situation and how he was just by himself. He just shook his head a bit to get that out, but luckily Iann found something from the blood and got Rein’s attention.

“Sometimes you have to go through bad things in order to learn the good,” Iann murmured, scraping at his bottom lip with his teeth.  He said it more in an offhand way, as opposed to trying to enlighten Rein.  It had always been Iann’s own personal experience, after all, that tragedy or horror often went hand-in-hand with growth and change.  Nothing, he’d learned with great difficulty and just a small amount of bitterness, was ever entirely bad.

Except demons, of course.

He reached out and rubbed at Rein’s arm, just for a moment.  Maybe even just more for himself, and the comfort of physical contact with his good friend.  He smiled then, a bit shyly, as Rein started asking about blood magic.  Rein’s concerns weren’t really something to be smiling about, but Iann couldn’t help himself as his feelings got in the way of practicality.

“Most people haven’t,” he agreed with Rein.  “It’s like necromancy or carrion magic - anything that inherently involves death or injury…it can get a little tricky to see it as good.  There’s a stigma around that sort of thing, that’s for sure.”  

Iann knew that sort of pattern though, no different from humans.  People born with a stigma often grew up haunted, defensive, distrustful because no one trusted them.  It was a self-fulfilling prophecy - people expected the stigmatized child to grow up into a bad person and treated it thusly, ergo creating the bad person they expected.

“She’s very skilled, far more adept at bloodwork than I am,” Iann said to Rein.  He grinned more, when Rein picked up on his inability to stop smiling.  He tapped the vial of blood against his hand, shaking it up. 

“Well, ahhh.  I mean, also I kind of dig her, and she’s kinda into me too.  So I know her well. Or - I know how she uses her magic, anyway. Kind of.  For me.”

“That is true. Surely not a nice thing, but it is true”, the nymph agreed. In Rein’s books Iann had always been a wise man and even though Rein didn’t always sound it aloud, he was quite sure Iann knew he thought that. But just in case he didn’t, Rein decided to say it aloud anyway. “You are wise. Like an owl. Calm and have wisdom in your words”, then a tiny grin crawled on his lips, “But sometimes totally cuckoo. I’m sure you can turn your head backwards and creep everyone out.”

The comforting rub on his arm was returned with a thankful smile. In a way it was a bit funny even how Rein hadn’t really been one to be all touchy-feely, now he definitely liked all that. A simple touch could mean so much and he certainly had learned to appreciate that a lot. Especially hugs. And he had became quite great with giving hugs too.

“That stigma has been going for decades, probably centuries”, he hummed and leaned his hands on the edge of the counter as he watched what Iann was doing with the blood. “But I trust your judgement with her and won’t put her in the bad books before I’ve met her and gotten to know her.” The fact of him meeting her might never happen, but either way, he’d be sure not to judge her just because she did blood magic.

“Everything unbelievable is good,” Iann proclaimed brazenly. It was an overstatement of course but it was all in good humour.  He leaned his hip against the workbench, folding his arms as he listened to Rein.  

“Yeah.  That sort of feeling can come and go, it’s…well truth is, that sort of feeling is part of being human.  Or humanish, I should say.  And in that respect, you still got the advantage on us poor mortals, hm?  Our lifespans are short so once our mindset changes, there’s limited time to change it back.  Who knows - maybe after another century, you might shift into some other way of seeing the world, or go back to your old way, or whatever.  You - well, you got the time, buddy.”

He unfolded his arms and flicked at the vial of Copper’s blood, then turned to gather the tools needed to run some experiments on it.  There wasn’t a lot of blood - only a vial’s worth - so Iann needed to make sure he put all the blood to good use.

“Agreed.  We did the right thing, casting Jacob away,” Iann reiterated, even if there was still a niggling part of him that said they could’ve handled it different, or better.  But Iann told himself that was just his own sense of incompleteness and dissatisfaction.  What mattered was that Rein had no regrets.

“I’ll put some aside for my - for a friend of mine, her name is Ciara.  She’s a blood witch.  She’s really good at her magic too, so if anyone could give you insight on Copper with a finality, it’d be her.”  Iann smiled, then tried not to smile, which only made him smile more.  He ducked his head, setting up the rest of his own less-magical, more mechanical contraption, including preparing a slide for his microscope.

“I’m pretty sure there’re some unbelievable things that aren’t good”, he chuckled, but he still felt some kind of happiness by the fact he got called being unbelievable. It was a word with a pretty nice ring on it.

Rein concentrated on listening Iann, nodding few times here and there, but the mention of Rein living long and how he could go back to his old self, the nymph ended up shaking his head. “I think I’d rather use the upcoming years for learning more instead of going back. Learn more in good and in bad. But hopefully the future has more of the good things than bad ones.”

He hummed and nodded his head again. It was good Jacob was gone. In a way Rein hoped he would’ve suffered even more than he seemed to, but Rein really wasn’t a creature with ill will. It seemed like only Jacob was worth of his anger and bad thoughts. Rein was quite sure Iann knew that too, knowing how Iann had seen Rein going through emotions during the years. He really wasn’t an evil guy, he liked peace way too much to be a horrible person.

As the blood nymph was mentioned, Rein turned to look at Iann. “I think you’ve mentioned a blood nymph before. And I think I even then said that a blood nymph sounds a bit worrying. But a blood witch too? I’ve never really heard good things about blood magic..” Especially when controlling blood only made Rein think back to the day when he used his own powers to cause pain to another living being because of the iron in their blood. He shook his head a bit to get that thought out of his head, he definitely didn’t like to think back to that day.

Ruby closed her eyes, hoping that maybe she could hear something that would give them some clue about what was happening here. An electrical hum, a vibration, the turning of fans… anything. But there was nothing. Just the sounds of the neighborhood and Rein across the way. 

When the nymph stopped, so did Ruby. She watched her friend as he knelt down, pressing his hand to the ground. When he told her what he felt, Ruby frowned. “A cable?” She looked in the same direction as Rein. Behind the neighborhood was a flat area of open field that bordered the woods in the distance. Between the far end of the field and the forest was a large drainage ditch that carried rainwater away from town. Squatting down next to him, Ruby dug her fingers into the thick layer of turf and grass where Rein said the cable started. She eventually hit concrete, but even after digging up a small area around the site, there was no outward evidence of any sort of port or outlet. “Shit.” 

When Rein gave his thoughts on how the cable had been hidden, Ruby nodded, chewing her lip in thought. “You may be right,” she said of whoever had done this hiding their tracks. “I’ll get a team out here to see if they can find anything that’s been covered with magic.” Ruby took a moment to radio in the request. When she was done, she turned back to Rein.

“But that could definitely explain why the power surge came from here, even though it looks like this.” She gestured at the abandoned lot. “Can you follow it? The cable?” she asked him. “If we can find where it goes, maybe we’ll get some answers.” Hopefully, it wasn’t something sinister like… a bunker full of alien babies in test tubes. Or anything in test tubes. 

Rein gave a nod to Ruby when she told she’d get some people to check out the area. It was good there were people who could do that, it made things a lot easier for sure. In a way Rein was curious to see what kind of people those were and how they’d be figuring out things, but at the same time he wanted to go furter on solving this mystery. And unfortunately he couldn’t be in two places at the same time, so he’d have to choose which he wanted to do.

As Ruby called back to the station Rein tried to figure out where the cable was possibly going. He walked forward, corrected his step if the cable disappeared and eventually it really started to look like that whatever the thing was it was underground and the spot where to get in there was nowhere in this field. So it had to be somewhere else. But where?

When Ruby spoke again, Rein turned on his spot to look at her. “That’s what I’m doing”, he commented when she asked him to follow it, although he did chuckle a bit at it. “I’m quite sure wherever it’s going it’s not on this spot. To get down there you need to go somewhere.. there.” He gestured with his hand somewhere to the direction where he had been going a moment ago. “But if we keep following I’m sure it’ll come to an end eventually. And hopefully end up to a building or something that makes sense as an entrance.”

“Whu–”  Iann started to say when Rein nabbed the electric razor from him.  He hand was outstretched, but Iann slowly lowered it as he watched the nymph slowly but steadily buzz off his beard, as if on some sort of whim.  It was like watching a salt-and-pepper sheep being shorn, and Iann gave a light laugh when he realized Rein seemed content to leave the moustache in tact.

“Ahh here - “ Iann looked around, then found a hand mirror in one of the toolbox drawers.  He held it up, allowing Rein to make sure his work was at least symmetrical, even if it wasn’t precise.  Only as close as the razor blade allowed.  Iann reached out and pet Rein’s coarse, shorn cheek.  

“Now we’re like twins, at least for a few hours.  Because this is all gonna grow back by 5 o’clock,” he joked, feeling oddly fond.   He had no idea why Rein chose to do it, other than perhaps for Iann’s entertainment.  He’d learned that about Rein - the nymph had a performative streak in him.  Not just to play songs in front of a crowd, but to do tricks with his metal as well for his friends; and now, apparently, to do harmless but shocking moves.  “You’re unbelievable, you know that?”

But Iann sobered up as Rein revealed that his feeling of loneliness might’ve increased, since settling down.  Iann looked down at Copper, who was staring up at Rein and eventually stood up to rub and preen against the nymph’s arm.  

“Sometimes that happens.  Sometimes having no friends seems like a good barrier, because then you don’t know how good it feels, or how bad it feels when they’re not there.”  Iann thought about his own life - shorter than Rein’s of course, but there were periods where he’d purposely isolated himself.  Then again, Iann considered himself lucky that he rarely felt lonely, even when he was alone.  For Rein, it was much different; and to Iann, it seemed infinitely more difficult.

He frowned when Rein brought up the obvious.  “The only way to bring up that old bastard now is through a seance.  And as much as Copper is a cool cat, I don’t think it’s worth dragging that fucker up from the afterlife.  I doubt he’d even want to talk about Copper anyway, he’d just try to torment you.”

This whole ‘shave part of your beard’ thing was definitely just something Rein ended up doing in a whim. But he knew beard was just a beard and it’d grow back in a bit. After all, he did buzz cut his hair time to time and sometimes shaved his beard all off and sometimes he let both just grow all wild. In a way it was Rein’s typical looks that it could be anything because he had no reason to keep one look over another. It was like his clothes stayed the same but his facial hair and hair in general could be whatever.

The shaving got a bit easier when Iann gave a mirror -- not that Rein would’ve minded his beard being all wonky for a bit -- but it definitely was easier to make it look a bt more neat when you had a mirror to stare at. When Iann touched his cheek, Rein looked at him with slightly raised brow, but then chuckled at his words. “Just imagine if it’d grow to the same length exactly at five. Just puff and it’s back.” The amused look softened into a small smile. “I take that you’re calling be unbelievable in a good way.”

Rein looked back at Copper when he pushed his head against his arm and the nymph gave the cat a soft smile and ran his hand along the animal’s back. “It probably sounds horrible that I was all fine for a bit over hundred years just watching and observing and learning stuff. And when I stopped still and started to learn more I sort of miss those first hundred when I just didn’t care and just wondered instead of finding out. But at the same time.. Staying here has made me learn so much about things that are probably all normal to any human or humankind creature. And learn so much more about myself. I’m thankful for all that, but really, sometimes it’d be just easier to be the old-Rein who cared just about staying invisible to others.”

“The three caballeros - like that old cartoon,” Iann chuckled as Rein summarized their misadventures in hair and fur (or lack thereof).  Rein’s sense of humour was always amusing to Iann, easy for him to go along with most of the time.  But then Iann tended to see the humour in a lot of things, albeit sometimes in a different way that Rein did. But their differences were what Iann liked, just as much as their similarities.

“Oh no, no.  You’d look swell clean-shaven.  Me and Copper on the other hand, we’d look - well we’d both look like shaved cats.” Iann grinned at Copper.  “Am I right or am I right, Cops?”

Rein’s assessment of nymph’s life-giving abilities made Iann want to shake his head and be contrary, offer a different viewpoint to Rein that it didn’t have to be creepy.  For a nymph to grant life - like a bird nymph, or a flower nymph - made sense to Iann.  But then he thought about himself and Miguel, the entity that was their father.  Iann’s idea that the thing that called itself Xolotl was no god, but merely an ancient fae.  Like a nymph.   Iann closed his mouth and looked grim.  

He nodded.  “Yeah, I guess it is a little freaky…depending on how powerful the nymph can get with an ability like that.  What they can…do with it.”

It felt better to concentrate and focus on Rein.  The metal nymph wasn’t the type to be seduced by power, and sometimes Iann believed Rein didn’t have the ability to be bad.  Metal was neutral, inert until it was exposed to other elements: heat, or cold, or electricity.   Rein had a temper, Iann had witnessed that.  But he only became angry, vengeful when he was pressed.  His normal state was unreactive, for the most part.

“If you did create Copper, perhaps you didn’t even realize you were doing it,” Iann surmised.  He looked at Rein.  “You’re…you come off as stoic and unfeeling, but I know sometimes you get lonely.  Or sad.  You feel things, y’know?  You’ve only really consciously realized this yourself.  But just because you didn’t realize before, doesn’t mean you weren’t feeling things before.  Things like…want and need. Perhaps a need for companionship.”

Iann exhaled.  “I’m trying to remember if I can remember Copper being around, all those years ago.  In the trains, when we’d first met.  Do you know anyone else who might’ve known you years ago?  Maybe they’d have a better memory.”

“I’ll be the parrot, Copper is the rooster and you’re Donald Duck.” Truthfully, it was most likely that Rein was Donald than Iann, but Rein rather was a parrot than a duck, which was why he even came up with this logic.

Rein raised his brow at Iann comparing himself as a shaved cat without that fuzz on his upper lip. “Nah”, the nymph mused, “You’d look like a shaved rat.” A thought came in Rein’s head, he grabbed the razor and just for the fun of it started to shave his own beard. He started from his chin and the sides of his mouth, leaving a horrible and long mutton chops and moustache. Shaving his whole face leaving only the moustache left would take time and Rein didn’t want to spend that time now. Just getting rid of his beard on his chin was the quickest method. But once he was done with this thing of his he looked at Iann, just to see his reaction to this new creation of his.

As Iann went on about the possibility of Rein being the cause Copper is here, the nymph went silent and you probably could feel how the air around him started to turn colder as Rein’s mood was getting grim. He didn’t really want to admit that he indeed was lonely and had been that multiple times. But he knew Iann knew that even without Rein saying anything about it. That was also why he didn’t mind showing his actual thoughts to this human either. He knew he could trust Iann and that Iann wouldn’t be shittalking about him just because Rein was what he was.

A sigh. “Yeah, well.. I don’t know is it this place or the fact I’ve stayed still for so long, so I’ve gotten more time to think shit, but I guess that feeling has only gotten worse. Or maybe it has been just me realising it more now than before since I’m not always on the move keeping myself busy with everything.” He shrugged a bit, just to get that feeling to roll off of his shoulders. Of course he knew just a shrug wouldn’t do it, but it helped psychologically. Or something.

“I suppose I could shave part of the stache off in solidarity, eh Copper?” Iann said, then reached over to Rein, and pat at the nymph’s chest.  “And we’ll shave off some of ol Reiny’s thick manly chest rug as well.  You think a smiley-face would look good?  Me too.”  Iann grinned as if he was sharing a laugh with the cat.  It was more funny because of how impassive Copper was.  

“I know, I know.  I wish I had a chest rug myself. All I got are scraggly little clumps.”

Rein’s question was certainly interesting, and Iann listened as Rein continued to talk, trying to pinpoint Copper’s origin.  Some dark theory coalesced in the back of Iann’s mind; something jeering and mocking and somewhat cruel, but Iann blinked rapidly and it disappeared as if he’d flashed a light into a dark closet.  

Instead, he spoke strictly about the lighter aspect of theory, as he glanced at Rein.  “You know how nymphs are embodied - through the reverence and life-energy of people, that’s poured into any certain element.  What if…”  Iann finished drawing blood, hoping it was enough to use as he carefully pulled the needle out and extracted the tube.  

“What if nymphs then had the power to create?  You create metal from your own energy, of course.”  Rein had demonstrated and experimented with this several times.  “But a forest nymph, say, could create plants.  Plants are life.  What if other nymphs can create life through their elements as well?  Copper…a cat of metal, with life breathed into him by you.  Maybe you were subconsciously wanting a companion, and then one day there he was…”

Iann looked at the blood, then at the fur that Rein had collected into a soft orange pile.  His brow furrowed.  “Maybe we didn’t even need to take blood, maybe you can see if that fur there is…ah…isn’t keratin at all.  Maybe…maybe it’s actually very fine, very soft metal.”

Rein looked between Iann and Copper as the two had this conversation and even though the nymph tried his best not to laugh it was impossible. So he just burst into a laughter. “You with just side moustache, me with a face on my chest and Copper with a patch on his paw. What a great trio.” He shook his head because just the thought of all this sounded ridiculous. But it also did bring an idea to his head. “Or..” he looked at Iann again, raising his brow a bit. “Maybe in solidarity we both shave our beard-moustache -situation and be clean shaven.” The end result of that would most likely be just as funny as random smiley faces on your chest.

He listened Iann’s thought process, looked at Copper and ended up frowning. And then the frowned look turned to Iann, the frown only getting deeper. Soon his face would look like a prune if he’d keep frowning more. “A nymph creating life sounds pretty terrifying, honestly.” Rein was thinking of a nymph creating a living beeing the same way he created small things from metal. Just like creating a form and then it grows organs and gets a face and starts to talk. It actually sounded horrifying.

But as Iann continued the run of his thought and came to the fact of Copper being created from metal, Rein looked at the cat, the pile of fur and the cat again. “That.. sounds weird. But.. in some way possible..?” Now the frown turned into more of a questioning one. “Could I have power to do such? Create a companion?” The question was sort of for himself, but at the same time he sort of hoped Iann would have some kind of answer to that.

“It’s a legit thing,” Ruby smiled as they drove. She wouldn’t give him a made up title, especially when he was helping her so much, and was so close to the investigation, as it were. Once they’d arrived, Ruby let Rein look around as he pleased once they’d gotten permission. When he pointed out the spike itself, Ruby’s eyebrows raised. “Wow. That’s some difference.” There was no way anything Rein was doing had caused the energy surge. That fact was doubly-secured once he showed her the addition of the greenhouse. Which was barely a blip on scale. 

Unlike the huge jump that had been reported. Ruby shook her head. “I have no idea. But I guess that’s our next stop.” Paying a visit to the location of the spike was the next best option. They wrapped up things at the power company - Ruby securing printouts of the surges and their relevant information - and the made the drive out to the address listed, which was in the suburbs of The Holt. 

“Well, this isn’t what I expected.” Ruby glanced curiously at Rein as they got out of the car. There was no house. Only a vacant lot where one used to be. But that didn’t mean there was nothing there. Ruby radioed the station asking for more information on the address, and she and Rein made their way towards the empty lot. “Can you sense anything?” she asked the nymph. “Anything under the ground… anything…” She huffed a laugh as she cautiously explored the edges of the small property. “… unusual?” 

Rein kept comparing the numbers and figures between his own location and this woman’s location and no matter how he tried to see it, there really was no way this woman was using electricity for anything normal. It had to be something big, probably insane in a way. This town had so many weird people living in it and honestly Rein wasn’t sure would he be able to get surprised by anything anymore.

As they were leaving the power company, Rein made sure no one would really figure out what exactly he had been looking at -- he didn’t want someone coming to his door demanding to know more details about how he gets power to his house. So he made sure to hide his own tracks and pretend he had been looking multiple things instead of that exact one.

The whole drive to the suburbs went by as Rein was trying to think possibilities of where the electricity was even going, but he really couldn’t come up with one logical answer. But he damn well hoped they’d find some kind of explanation. Although there didn’t seem to be any logical explanation at the location when they arrived there and Rein just ended up frowning. A lot.