[PRP] fire cleanses (cass & jeremiah)

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah was, perhaps, a little more involved in making sure that Cass got healed properly. Not that it was really necessary, they knew what they were doing, but this was different than when they had fought the glitch.

This was even different, somehow, than when Zac was involved or-

The point here was that Jeremiah was, for a change, actually feeling very much the worried father figure. It was not something he was familiar with. It was trying to not hover.

Even Algie had given him looks about it.

Eventually, however, once people were settled and he was back from the things he needed to do, he was knocking and poking his head in to check on Cass. "Cass?" his voice was soft, on the off chance she was actually asleep.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Maybe she should have changed out of her singed clothing. But Cass wasn't quite ready to be too comfortable in a strange place. Especially not one full of magic and not one she could quite so easily escape from. She'd agreed to stay because it was the right thing - at least where she was concerned - but now that it was just her, alone in a strange room....it set her need to run for the hills off.

It wasn't a particularly string feeling. She'd fought it every time she moved, but it usually wasn't accompanied by a strange...entrapment.

So she'd taken to memorizing the way the corners of the ceiling met and how the darkness distributed itself across the flat planes. It was a strange comfort, but...but someone was knocking at the door. She sat up, staring at the door with half-narrowed eyes.

"I'm up, come in."

It sounded like Jeremiah - which meant she hadn't just invited a stranger in, hopefully.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Thankfully it was actually Jeremiah. In the darkness of the room it was easy to see him by the reflective quality of his eyes.

"Didn't think you'd be able to sleep easily here," he said as he stepped inside, closing the door behind him. Algie and himself had a room next door, as their domain was, simply put, no more.

"How are your hands?" There was a way to light the room and it involved magic but for the moment, Jeremiah did not seem to be doing so. Mostly because he could see in the dark just fine.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Too bad she could just trade cigarettes for cool night-vision eyes. Then they'd really have looked like quite the related pair. Her constant presence would have to make up for it, then.

"You mean after I took three hours and nearly a revisit to Energy Reservoir Cat on your couch? How ever would you have guessed?" She sat up as she spoke, stretching her legs out before shifting to sit on the edge of the bed.

The darkness wasn't really a bother.

"They're a little crispy still. Not as bad as the rest was. I can safely say I've never been on fire before." And she rely had to keep herself from jokingly singing Girl on Fire by Alicia Keyes to emphasize the joke.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Singing that song by have made him snort, even if inwardly he might have started to worry again. Jeremiah was doing a good job about that for the moment. He took a seat on the edge of the bed, bumping her lightly with his shoulder.

"Let me see?" he asked, both his hands held out for hers. "You're my last stop before I finally succumb to the need for rest. I had a few other things I needed to tend to." It included making sure people with ankle monitors made it to where they needed to be for when they were pinged.

"... and being on fire is, quite honestly, overrated. As you're now aware."

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

She bumped her shoulder back against his with a small smile. He was always so good to come around and check up on her. It was....worrying in some ways to have someone actually care - like, in a way where as far as she was concerned they weren't really getting anything back from her. It was a different sort of caring than Marcus did and that was...had been her default for years.

Her somewhat crispy hands were places palm-up into Jeremiah's. While they didn't look horrible compared to some of the burning that had been taking place earlier, they still looked as though they would scab over and leave a mark in the long run. "Gotcha. Saved the best for last," she joked, smiling.

"Being on fire literally is overrated. Being on fire metaphorically can be great. That was much less fun than the Glitch." at least for her. She hadn't actually tried to charge The Burning Man....mostly because she was told not to.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Of course," Jeremiah replied, smiling at her. The best was obviously saved for last. His was careful once her hands were in his, thumbs brushing just above the skin. There was faint level of heat from them that came from burns and he was ... easing that. Just another nudge to help the healing along, really, but a pleasant coolness all the same.

It came with an undercurrent, as his touch was like to do, of his concern and caring. Jeremiah was not quite so used to this level of concern, something that was fatherly. Most others fought hard against that kind of relationship with him - not need a figure in their life that was a parental unit - but they had fallen into it easily.

"Far less," agreed Jeremiah, letting go of her hands with a soft squeeze once he was satisfied. "I was not, in all honesty, expecting to see Ezra separated from the Burning Man or for it to be so ... explosive there at the end."

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

It was pleasant in that it wan't quite like just simply applying ice to a burn. Cool, but not cold. The more he worked along her hands, the more they relaxed and in turn, Cass herself seemed to relax as well. Maybe it was just the excitement of the day (which hadn't been very fun) that had her all wound up.

But it had been so easy to just unravel that ball of string in her gut, one knot at a time, in Jeremiah's presence and perhaps that too was why she so easily relaxed into him. While she'd never actively sought out a replacement for all of the parental support (or even just general support SHE WAS LOOKING AT YOU GUS) she'd lacked for so long, it had been nice, even for a few weeks, to have it.

She squeezed his hands back when he released her, sighing and stretching her arms up above her head as he spoke - before laughing. "Well, yes. I'm just grateful you have pants on again." she teased, bumping him with her shoulder. "But I'll be interested in seeing how that turns out. I mean, will there be long term effects from it do you think? Plus everybody sort of beat the snot out of that boy - Ezra?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah rolled his eyes a bit, though a huff of laughter escaped at the nudge because of his actual wearing of clothing. "An unforeseen side-effect. Usually I don't worry about the fire catching my clothing on fire but then it isn't usually F-"

A pause, then a sigh. The slip had happened earlier but he was mindful of it at the moment, if only to continue maintaining the distance he had worked for in his mind.

"The Burning Man is not the one that is the source of the fire."

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Her brows furrowed together at the slip of his tongue, tilting her head up towards him curiously. F-? She'd keep a mental note out for that one, at least for a little while.

"He's...not? Then who is? I mean, he was very much on fire. Was it...something someone else did to him?" Was he swollen with fire like Ceaseless Discharge? Did he have a bunch of Pyromancer sisters and everything went bad? Had Cass played too much Dark Souls in the basement of The 4th Wall? Yes.

"Is it someone I should be concerned about?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"I meant more that ... the fire is usually of my own control, not someone else's," Jeremiah replied, shaking his head. Mostly because it was a slip and it made him realize just how worn he was. "If anything, you could say that he's directly responsible for the fact that I am immune to fire but as to answer the other question ... Yes, someone else is likely responsible but likely in the same way that I am immune to fire."

At least, that was the current theory. Part of it surely had to be because of the tithing process- The Spinel Lady would not have set him on fire directly, would she? Then again, he looked to the bone ring on his pinky and wondered.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

If she'd had better vision in the dark, she probably would have cast a look down towards the ring on his hand as well. As night vision wasn't her thing, she opted to leave it alone.

"Gotcha," Cass leaned back onto her palms and sighed. "At least the important things didn't catch on fire. Like you." she smiled, kicking her legs out in front of her. "I'm not going to think too hard about it right now. Probably not a good place or time for me to suddenly have a fever dream, yeah?"

If she spent too long wondering how it worked, they'd get....energy reservoir cat, clearly.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

There was a light poke to her side from Jeremiah. "No, I would try to avoid energy reservoir cat. Especially while the magic is about to be in a state of flux." The amusement was clear in his voice, though it ended with a yawn before he spoke again.

"I am glad," admitted Jeremiah, "that you were not badly injured." That would have been rather upsetting to put it lightly. "Even if today has also been both informative and confusing at the same time."

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

"You sure? Just need to go get me Hellbine and I think we'll be set for disaster to strike but at least he'll enjoy it while it's going down." Cass mused, nudging Jeremiah's arm before his yawn spurred her own on. She shrugged.

"Today was definitely more confusing than informative for me, but it is what it is." She'd met three people she definitely didn't know, one of them had.......well, it was sad even if she didn't know them, and then everything had been on fire. Clearly magical politics were a hot game.

..
....

Oh heck, that was a bad pun.

"I definitely spent less time on fire than some people, and I've definitely had worse." Like the scar on her side.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"On the topic of Hellbine ..." Jeremiah held his hand out in front of him and, with a wiggle of his fingers, a very particular and familiar roomba appeared. "I thought this might make things easier for you to sleep."

Holding it out to her, he nodded. "Afterward, I can tell you about the triplets. The one that died? They were the one that blessed my garden all those months ago, though their form was quite different and they did, in fact, look like a deer."

His arm, once his hand was no longer holding the roomba, went around her shoulders for a light squeeze. "Let's plan on this day, what happened here, being the worst that happens for a good, long while."

demon_pachabel