#muse.aravis

it feels like aeons have passed since they emerged from the collapsed school building, even though it has really only been a few hours. ravi sits in a folding chair in a quiet corner of the clinic, mourning the lives lost ( not the hunters, fuck those guys ), annotating their own obituary with a bowl propped under their chin to catch any tears. the sound of footsteps has them looking towards the doorway, heart rate spiking despite knowing the hunters are gone. “ sheesh, i nearly gave myself a heart attack, ” they joke. “ good to see you, though. how have you been ? ” the answer is probably bad, they doubt anyone has had a good day, but it never hurts to ask.

ravi sighs, knowing nothing gets past their dear friend's intuition. why they have a mountain-sized crush on this person, they'll never know. “ nearly seven hundred years is a long time, ” they say, “ and a phoenix doesn't fit in that well in immortal circles. ” aging and dying and being reborn, always too young or too old to mesh with the rest of the eternal beings. never at the right stage of life at the right time, never able to move on as easily as others. “ i got tired of having to move every time i was reborn, and of losing friends each time i did that. it's exhausting always having to look over your shoulder, wonder if you're going to get accused of being a witch for suddenly looking ten years younger and have them try to burn you at the stake. which always increased suspicion when i then didn't burn, and i got chased out with silver implements and pitchforks. ” it wasn't the weapons that stung, so much as the rejection from communities they grew to care for. “ here i can relax a bit. actually make friends that will last, not just for a couple of decades. ”

it's a relatively normal, peaceful day at the bookshop, customers coming and going throughout the day while ravi sits at their desk doing admin work. the bell rings above the door, and they glance up. “ hi matty, ” ravi says, “ looking for anything in particular, or did you just come in to say hi ? ” probably the former, with the way the town is at the moment — lots of people are looking for information to explain what's going on — but ravi can dream. “ 'cause i got a new record the other day, and i think you'd like it. ” they know matty prefers live music — have had arguments about it before — but this one's a real banger, and they're hopeful it might get her to acknowledge that pre-recorded music can be just as good.

nothing in particular springs to mind — just the usual white lies everyone tells to be polite. maybe that they're well-adjusted ? though nobody here really is, let's be honest.

cristian has sworn to xemself never to tell anyone exactly what transpired that resulted in the maris becoming his. it is a memory he does not wish to relive, ever. xe doesn't really promise things to other people, though.

cristian very rarely shares anything about xyr past, mostly because it ( justifiably ) comes across more than a little horrific.

✦ lenovo thinkpad e14 — their latest laptop, used for spreadsheets and budgeting and stocktake and the like — mostly because their fingers would fall off if they tried to do those things by hand. also, excel can do the maths for them.