Private Day 68

[Jem Fossk]

Iris Arani
Spintir | Dawn Temple
Day 68

Jem had fallen from a building once.

She tried to jump too quickly after another and misjudged her own strength. It had been Dagon Kaze hand that reached out and stopped her fall. She thought about that day a lot lately. She had taken up the task of rebuilding the north gate wall. It was 15 feet high, hardly a sky scrapper, but she felt unsteady on the scaffolding as she worked alone on the building.

She knew better than to linger. On the cement, that was-- she knew better than to overwork the cement too much. It messed with its integrity. She dropped her stirring stick hefted the bucket up with a grimace.

She wasn't expecting visitors today, but then again she was beginning to realize that the force didn't give a damn about what she did or didn't plan. "I'm not gonna let this bucket dry out, so if you have something to say to me you can say it from there," she told the figure that stepped into view.

Jem was never known for being the friendly sorts and today was no exception. The scaffolding bowed under the weight of her and the bucket as she slowly made her way to the top.

 

[Iris Arani]

Iris didn't actually have anything to say. She didn't know what to say about this. With Thalia Senn she didn't know the girl before her fall. But Jem was different. She actually knew Jem. Or at least thought she did.

Iris didn't even know Jem had fallen, let alone was Solipses's daughter. So rather than try to say anything she hoped up. Not entirely paying attention to the weight limit as she reached the top to try and just help with the project Jem was on. They hadn't talked to each other since the winter festival, so long ago. Both had their new scars, some more visible than others.

".. Are you okay?"

It was the only words she could think up in the prolonged silence of them laying bricks. A silence that wasn't just broken by the question. The scaffolding cracked.

Then crumbled beneath them.

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

Youch.

Jem would be found half sticking out of the cracked scaffolding, seemingly whole but taking deep, intentional breaths. She would. Stay. Calm. It was. Just. A fall.

Jem broke her own rule and gripped at the force, shoving the pile ten feet away from her in every direction. It left the force feeling foul, but she didn't linger.

Half the bucket was in her hair.

"Fuck," she complained, a split lip heeling rapidly as she spoke. "Iris! Look at what you did!"

 

[Iris Arani]

Iris winced as she sat up from where she'd fallen to. Bucket in hand. Well, empty bucket. She was in just a bad of state as Jem was, and frowning. That hurt more than she would've thought it would. She didn't have Jem's natural healing either, so the cut on her forearm was still bleeding when she did finally at least look over herself. Then set a hand over it to start making the wound knit itself together.

"Ah.. I'm sorry. I didn't think the wood was that weak." A sigh escaped her before she reached up to her own hair, feeling through the cement that was already starting to dry.

"Um.. What do we do?"

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

Jem sighed.

"Idunno, Iris. You broke it, you figure it out." Even though it was Jem's project, Jem recovery, and Jem's home. She wiped cement away from her eyes and looked around. "How'd you even get here anyways? Shouldn't Valery have you on a leash?" She would be harsher than the girl would remember-- as if the anger would be enough to scare the hard things away.

Was it working?

She stood up and grabbed the bucket from Iris, bringing it back to the supplies.

 

[Iris Arani]

Most people would be spurned right away by the aggression. But Iris was always the weird one. She could see the colors behind it, the core of the issues. She watched Jem for a moment, staying quiet and letting the once fallen storm off. And smiled none the less. "It feels easier to do things alone, but you don't have to be. Sometimes what's hardest is what you need to do."

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

Jem squeezed her eyes shut, Iris's steady and direct words cutting through her. "...I'm sorry, Iris," she sighed, her shoulders rising and falling at the effort of deep breaths.

"This wasn't how I planned on spending today, is all.” She grabbed a rag and wiped down her arms, the cement sloughing off. "I'll have to rebuild the scaffolds now, deal with all that dried cement. ... that was my last bucket," she listed eyes scanning over the new problems she had on her plate.

They were a lot different than the ones she had three months ago, but she couldn't see past the cement drying on her nose. She sighed again, her shoulders dropping.

"I don’t mean to be mad." And yet her gut still boiled, the darkside trying to pull her back towards her frustrations.

 

[Iris Arani]

Iris had either given up or just stopped caring about the concrete in her own hair, instead just watching Jem. Then looked over to the scaffolding that had broken apart in surprise. "You built that? .. Why did you make it so dangerously unsteady?" Yeah that's what they should talk about. The Padawan moved over to the broken planks, sorting through what was usable. What wasn't.

"It's okay to be angry. I'm not sure what this whole thing is doing for you, but don't forget you're a person too. Just, being angry and using it is what matters."

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

Jem shot Iris an annoyed look.

It had been perfectly steady for her.

"I can't afford to be angry anymore, Iris. I can't do a lot of things I use to. You wouldn't get it, you're perfectly--" She struggled for a word that wasn't rude or corny. "Well-- you." She dragged in a deep breath, then started to sort the salvageable from the trashed. "How do you care so little about everything?"

She did not mean to make that sound like an insult. Honest.

 

[Iris Arani]

"It's hard to care about something you don't know to." Iris didn't take it as an insult. Or, more accurately, it wasn't the first time she'd heard that. A sadder smile took over as she continued her own sorting. "I don't know a lot about how to be a person. I don't know what it's like to have parents. Until recently I didn't know what it was like to be angry or love or.. Anything. They were just colors I could see in people, no context."

She lifted up a slab of wood with her pinkyless hand, glancing it over. Still good.

"I don't know what you're going through. How it feels. But I can see you don't actually want to be alone. So even if I can't understand, I want to be here for you. You showed me how to see through more of this haze of colors during that festival after all."

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

Jem stopped and looked over her shoulder, taken back back Iris's confession. "What? ... I dragged you out," She asserted. "I got you in trouble."

 

[Iris Arani]

"Ah, yeah, we did didn't we?" Iris laughed and.. Well just shrugged it off. Trouble didn't matter, not to her. Not that kind of trouble at least. "But if we hadn't gone I never would've seen those lights. Y'know, the ones in the sky. That you people can actually see. A.. Auroras? Yeah. Made me feel less crazy." She paused, then glanced back to Jem with a pout.

"And painting is perfectly fine you know. It's not weird."

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

Jem's lips twitched, a subtle, warming gold returning to her ashen complexion.

"In the middle of the street?" She challenged, a brow raised.

 

[Iris Arani]

"Especially in the middle of the street. So long as you move to the side once you realize you're in people's ways." At least Iris understood that much. She smiled after a moment, turning her gaze back up to the still being rebuilt wall.

"Can I help?"

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

Jem hesitated, then looked to the mess she'd have to sort alone. "...Sure," she relented, her lips pressed to a thin line as she looked back Iris' way. "I'd... like that. Thanks."

And without another word, Jem based Iris the wheelbarrow to load up the broken parts.

The work would go by easier together.

~exit xoxox~