for the world slows and the stars falter

[jovahs_heiress]

Isabella sings harmonics - including with Micaiah, once he's learned the mass to performance quality; there's a forty-five minute section in the middle that's perfect for extracting and presenting to the wee hours of the morning at the Eyrie.

She flies on intercessions, and generally brings him along, for rain, to halt a blizzard, to calm a storm, and once she finds a plague flag and puts Micaiah down far away from the settlement while she quizzes the healthier community members about their symptoms. Angels rarely catch the plague; she feels safe enough picking Micaiah up again so he can listen to her sing through the verse designated for each complaint (this for fever, that for cough, the other for the rash) and watch the pills fall to earth. The flag comes down and they continue home.

She keeps half an eye on Nathaniel, and quietly informs Baruch of the situation as well so he'll be mindful of the boy's potential sensitivities.

She falls into an assistant role with Delilah - nothing so formal as the situation she had with Linus, because Isabella would be living at the Eyrie either way, but Delilah sends her to greet visitors and has her take notes at meetings and occasionally even asks her opinion on questions about this or that.

And one morning, Isabella opens her door to leave her quarters and sing a pre-dawn duet with Serah - and the hallway is not there.

"Micaiah," she murmurs.

Comments

[dark_light]

Petaal makes faces too. (And for that matter, Kas is probably mirroring her, he can feel the pain if not the details, but he's facing the wrong way.)

[truthwright]

Petaal lifts her head again and resettles into the cuddlepile. She wants to be touching everyone.

[eversomuchfun]

Sherlock kisses her freshly bitten neck.

Snuggle time? Looks like snuggle time. Warm feathery snuggle time.

[dark_light]

Mmmm, warm feathery snuggle time. Isabella approves.



Ultimately, though, she gets antsy, and she's wondering if Angela is even still there; they haven't talked about everything they might wish to talk about, after all. She slips out and ties her silks back on. "Can I throw a blanket over you guys for Angela's sensibilities before I go see if she's still there?"

[eversomuchfun]

"Certainly," says Sherlock.

[truthwright]

"Go for it," Kas agrees.

[dark_light]

Isabella blankets them, does up the last knots on her silks, and slips out.

[jovahs_heiress]

Angela is notebooking in the other bedroom, wing flung over Micaiah. "Hi," she says when Amariah comes out. "...Have fun?"

[dark_light]

"Heaps," agrees Amariah, stretching. "You getting lots of good processing done? I'm all for notebooks but I really don't know how you other bells manage without daemons."

[jovahs_heiress]

"I'm managing. I don't know about the others. Is that what we're calling the class? Bells?"

[dark_light]

"It's the only part of the name that always crop up. You and I aren't Swans, Shell Bell isn't an Isabella or even a Bella. Actually, I think this is why Alice's middle name is given as Whistle. Bells and whistles...? Do you not have that expression in Samaria? Well, anyway, I'm going to start calling Kas/Micaiah/Alice/Joker types Whistles as a group. I'm going to make a note of that in the guestbook."

[jovahs_heiress]

"I've never heard the expression," says Angela.

[pythbox]

"I have," says Micaiah, poking his head out from under Angela's wing. "I think it's cute."

[jovahs_heiress]

"Okay. You're a Whistle," she says, kissing his temple, "and I'm a Bell."

[pythbox]

He giggles.

"I love you," he says, and snuggles down under her wing again.

[jovahs_heiress]

"I'd get up, but Micaiah's not wearing anything," says Angela. "If you could close the door real quick...?"

[dark_light]

"Yeah, sure, whatever you need to do," says Amariah, shutting their door. She writes a note about "Whistles" in the guestbook.

[jovahs_heiress]

"If you could just put something on? Amariah doesn't care, but anyone might come in - well, any of me and their friends."

[pythbox]

"I don't care either," he points out. "But sure."

[jovahs_heiress]

"Others of me might. Or their friends. It's not all Whistles and Sherlocks - Stella's notes about Golden have her husband down as Edward and she refers to him as being 'uptight', for instance."

[pythbox]

"Okay." He gives her a kiss and retrieves his clothes from the floor.

[jovahs_heiress]

Once he's reasonably decent Angela exits the room and sits with Amariah and they swap life stories some more.

[eversomuchfun]

Some time later—a long time later—Sherlock emerges from the bedroom where Amariah last saw him. He looks very pleased with himself, in an understated sort of way.

[dark_light]

"Well, you look happy," says Amariah in the middle of a point-by-point comparison between Ranata Ekamma and the angel Rinnah.

[eversomuchfun]

"I am sure you can guess why," he says cheerfully.