Post by blauerfackel on Sept 5, 2005 22:26:11 GMT -5
Aiden had enough time to settle quite well into his cleaning routine by the time it was finally disturbed. Dara needed some time to prepare for what he intended to do. The large soldier laid a few heavy-handed knocks on the other elf's door, made a few adjustments to his rip-stop, camouflage patterned uniform, and then waited to be let in.
Aiden looked up from kneeling on the floor, a bucket of soapy water beside him. His sister and he had made great progress int he cleaning of the room, but the tile around the stove was covered in soot- and Aiden had taken responsibility of scrubbing the stone tiles clean. With a sigh he pushed himself off the floor, both hands bandaged still. He brushed off his apron, sleeves rolled up to the elbows, and opened the door. "Dara." He had half hoped the man's threat of coming over was unfounded.
"Aiden," the bigger male greeted curtly, and then stepped in with a wicked sucker punch, intent on burying his fist in the other's stomach.
Aiden, never one for battles or fighting, didn't see it coming. Wait, pause that. He DID see it coming, but it was too little too late and the elf found a fist buried into his gut. He felt his breath leave his body in one giant breath, pain shooting up his arms as he stumbled backwards, though the man kept on his feet. He was dazed for a moment but managed to choke. "What.. the fuck-"
"This is quite possibly the most pathetic display of Danaan uselessness I have ever had the misfortune of witnessing in my entire life, soldier," he snarled once he'd slammed the door behind him. That said, he swung his hand in a broad arc to box one of Aiden's ears. "Moping, drinking, hiding from the world and then destroying your own quarters? How is this possibly model behavior from a grown example of the greatest creatures to walk this planet?"
Aiden reeled back away from the punch, backstepping from Dara. Holy shit, the man had gone unhinged. He was speechless for the moment, tripping backwards over the coffee table (Which had been moved from its usual location thanks to aeri cleaning it) and stumbling onto the couch. Aiden's one eye looked a bit frightened of the approaching very angry head of security. Hell, Aiden might have only been 4 inches shorter, but he was half his weight and build. Aiden had always been more a magic user than a soldier.
"You've become a pacifist and a coward, Aiden, and now apparently what little fighting spirit you had left has deserted you. Are you truly as worthless as a wolf without teeth?" the front-line combatant continued to berate, reaching in an attempt to grab the sorcerer up by the collar and hurl him against the nearest wall.
Aiden soon found himself shoved up against the wall, both hands grabbing onto Dara's wrists, his head thumping painfully onto the stone. "We are not fighting a war, Dara." He growled through his gritted teeth, head swimming from the pain, but both hands clenched firmly ot Dara's arms, despite the pain from his previous injury. "I do not wish to return to my old ways." The war had insenced Aiden, having burned and destroyed countless humans with no remorse- that is until it was all over and they haunted him in his sleep and when his mind wasn't occupied or dulled with other substances.
And so began his using Aiden's entire body as a period for each of his declarations, bouncing him against the wall as each sentence was bitten off. "No, you'd rather fade into a snivelling, pathetic ball of shit, incapable of doing more than eventually immolating himself thanks to his utter lack of spine. I might not be a shit-hot magician, but I know damn well it takes authority to command the elements. And what do you have? Nothing. Your mother scorns you, your brother thinks you a fool and your sister walks all over you. Your respectability is falling by the wayside, to the point where anyone who would give a damn would do it out of sentiment and not respect. Did your backbone liquify and drip out of your asshole in your sleep over the past year!?"
Although his head was swimming, his body being slammed up against the wall, and he was quite sure the jarring of his head was giving him a nosebleed, he was getting pissed. With his head cracking against the wall, he was sure the blows were jarring his good sense. Well, good sense be damned at this point. "You know nothing." With two firm hands gripping Dara's arms, fire exploded from them, traveling up Dara's arms and eventually englulfing the whole of his person. "Forgive me, Dara, if I do not want to kill thousands again- if i doubt myself and take in a moment to think of the situation. FORGIVE ME if I take a moment to reflect upon what has happened over this past year. I do not have your conviction, or your irrational thought. I do NOT begin to thinking that I would take it upon myself to destroy thousands of lives for a cause that I do not believe. We differ in opinion, and because I do not want to get involved, it makes me a coward?" The flames only roared, licking the ceiling. So much for all that cleaning. His voice was less than pleased, hissing like the flames surrounding the both of them, fingers burning hotter where they touched the man's garment- the source of the flames. "I do NOT take kindly to your words, Dara." His voice was almost the poison of his mother's.
Dara's response? Cackle like a madman. "That's the spirit," he howled, and then grabbed the other elf up to give a near-bone crushing bear hug. "Notice that smell? The uniform is fire-retardant and I'm coated in a chemical layered on thick that'll burn a while before my flesh does. Now put the fire out before we both cook."
Aiden was in shock as he felt himself switch from being slammed into a wall repeatedly ot being hugged. As quickly as they started, the flames reversed in a surreal rewind motion, sucking back into his body, leaving only the heady smell of smoke and a black stain on the stone ceiling. "Oh Danu, Dara." Was all he could breath. What.. the hell.
Another burst of laughter, and then Aiden was set on his own two feet again. "We can talk politics later. What's more important right now is that your mopy bullshit is making you both a threat and entirely useless to any cause you'd choose to back. Setting fire to your own kitchen is pretty pitiful."
Aiden looked quite dazed as he found himself on his feet. He reached his arm up to smear the blood from his nose onto his white button up. "I certainly didn't except to burn down my own kitchen, Dara." He responded flatly, checking the damage to the back of his head, fingers rubbing over the sore lumps under his hair. He looked a little sullen and still slightly angry.\
"You aren't expecting anything anymore. That's the problem."
Satisfied his head wasn't bleeding, Aiden dropped his hands to his side. "I've had a quite.. numbing past few months." He responded, leaning back against the wall, his head pounding furiously. He reached up and pulled off his eyepatch, flinging it onto the floor as anything on his head was too much at the moment. "I have to admit I've been at a loss of what to do with myself. I fear I've quite lost myself." With a sigh he opened his eyes, pleased for a moment that the room was not spinning anymore. The wolf had dissapeared from his eyes and returned to it's cage and the average, placid Aiden had returned. "Though, I have to admit, I haven't been that angry in ages. Why are you so good at saying exactly what you need to piss me off." A little bite to the last phrase. Maybe the wolf wasn't... entirely locked up.
"Any idea how many potential soldiers I've had to break, rebuild, and train?" he asked blandly. "It's a gift. Anyway, enough of this hermit shit. I'm a workaholic and I get out more often than you do. That's sad."
"Yes. I step outside my room and promptly become irritated at the state of things." He said, pushing off the wall and giving Dara a slight shove. "Get me a bag of ice- it's your fault my head is splitting." Aiden said. "I didn't think you got out- but I suppose since the women have stopped harassing you you have been able to move about freely."
"Something like that," he muttered, wryly and a little darkly whilst actually doing the man a favor and getting him that icepack.
"Something bothering you?" He asked once Dara returned with the ice, placing it on the back of his head before sliding down onto the couch, tilting his head back to rest it against the cushions. He extended his lean legs out tiredly. "I never want to fight with you again." He looked at Dara with his good eye.
"The womenfolk are an irritating lot, is all," he remarked, helping himself to a chair. "I don't plan on beating on you unless you keep this idiotic crap up."
Aiden was about to make a comment about being gay, but then again, men were just as irritating. "And you wonder why I'm a hermit." He mumbled, the ice relieving some of the pain. He closed his eye again and exhaled slowly. "You knew I was going to set you on fire. You... planned this, didn't you?"
"Know thine enemy," he quoted with smirk.
"Bastard." Aiden breathed before sitting up slowly, opening his eyes again. "Are you still straddling the fence?" Referring to the human issue. Aiden wasn't quite sure what to make of all this. Han had approached him on the issue and Aiden got the distinct impression this man and his outspoken nature on the issue would be bad news.
"I made my decision long ago. There are just people that are a hell of a lot more extreme than I am running around. I look neutral by default." He rolled his eyes.
Aiden nodded slowly, though the motion was slightly painful. "I... am not quite sure anymore." Was all he could say. Aiden wasn't always indecisive, but he had grown increasingly neutral lately. While he still had faith in the humans, he was finding it waning every day.
"It's beginning to bother me, though. This politics bullshit, I mean. It's like this campus has managed to draw every last extremist idiot from society for me to babysit."
Aiden set aside the ice bag, leaning forward with his elbows on his thighs, delicate bandaged hands laced together, the fabric charred, spotting blood from overuse. "I've noticed. Very.. vocal extremists." He breathed, pondering. "This campus seems to be the starting ground for conflict. There has been too many dissapearances for my peace of mind."
"It doesn't help that the happy, would-be breeder idiots are publically stomping around and encouraging them," he said with a scowl.
"It.. irritates me how easily the youth seem to be divulging our secrets, from what I can gather." He had to admit, his sister was irresponsible and immature, but regardless of that, she did not go easily and tell every human what exactly she was. The safety of their race was important- very important.
"I've already had to silence three voices. Obnoxiously enough, now I'm just waiting to have to do it again."
Aiden rubbed his fingers over his forehead. The problem of Han was aggrivating- wasn't it clear that by joining him, he could not only get himself killed, but his familly as well? Slowly, the man looked up and turned to Dara. "I fear I won't be able to remain a pacifist for long- both sides are clawing at me now." Although he was more sympathetic to the human plight, he did not like the idea of signing his sister's deathwish.
"So, on the fence we sit. You, me, and the king," he said dryly. "This is starting to be familiar territory."
Aiden laughed softly. "It's become a little pathetic.." He responded. "Though I can't help but think something is about to blow. Have you heard anything from Uriel?" It wasn't like the Dannan to dissapear without a trace and without leaving word to at least one of the lower of the King's staff.
"Not a damned thing," he replied grimly. He'd never really met the boy, and what he knew of him made him want to strangle the little idiot, but sudden disappearances were still cause for worry.
Aiden sighed, running his fingers over his cheek before falling silent, in contemplation. A pause. "Didn't a human dissapear with him as well? I noticed someone remove his belongings from his room..." He leaned his head back, dropping the ice bag back on as he stared up at the dark spot on the ceiling. "I have to admit I am a little unnerved by this, Dara."
"Shot in the dark says it was an extremist assassination, but that's just my cynicism talking."
"Well, all signs point to yes." Aiden said, eyes traveling over his damaged ceiling. The man fell silent for a long time, mind pondering over the clues and the recent events on campus and the surrounding area. "Do you need any help?"
"Not unless you're clairvoyant and not telling me," Dara replied dryly. "The humans were able to stomp around enough to muddy the waters."
The man chuckled. "Then perhaps I can offer you a drink?" Puck, Aiden's hound, peered around from behind the armchair, now that it appeared the fight was over. Fire was not the dog's strong suit. Not that Aiden blamed him, really.
"May as well. Thanks." Absently, he reached down to scratch the dog's head.
Puck dropped to his haunches and wagged his tail, content at the attention. The elf nodded, standing up and moving himself over to the liquor cabinet, which was normally only filled with wine. He pulled out a bottle of scotch and poured two drinks on the rocks, walking back over and setting one down in front of Dara, holding the other himself. "And thank you." For beating some sense into him, but Aiden's pride wasn't about to let him voice the rest of that sentance.
"It's what I'm here for, more or less," the larger elf informed with a smirk, not needing the verbal punctuation to understand it.
Aiden sipped his drink, watching Dara pet his dog. "I wish there was a way I could help you- but ... I am not clairvouyant." He laughed softly.
"To be honest, there's not a lot we can do. Human authorities took everything remotely useful." That got another scowl out of him.
Aiden nodded, running his fingers through his short, dark hair. "I feel at a loss." He responded before lifting the glass to his lips again. Aiden felt he probably should get out more often.. despite Dara's violent tendencies, he rather enjoyed his company.
"It's damned irritating, believe me." With that, he fell silent for a few minutes, lapsing into thought. "Actually, there's something you could help with..."
Aiden looked up from his drink. "Something you have in mind?" He responded as Puck moved from Dara's side to lift his paws onto Aiden's lap, his hand unconciously moving down to pet the animal.
"Your mother recently tried to push some kind of horrendous concoction into the king's good graces, which I shot down on the grounds of the research provided being full of holes. He's forcing me to drop in on her continuing research on the material." He rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I know she'll hear of me coming most of the time before I even get there."
Aiden nodded- but he really didn't like where this was going. Not that he approved of his mother and brother's experiments, but.. his mother wouldn't think twice about killing him- Aiden did not produce offspring and was considered mostly useless.
"What're the odds of you wanting to keep an eye on your family with me?" he asked dryly, expecting the answer to be 'slim.'
Aiden winced. "You realize that is my brother and mother." But he sighed, tilting his head back. "What is it that you're looking for?"
"Any information they're hiding about their project. Evidence they are hiding information."
Aiden breathed softly, rubbing his chin. "My mother has been working on these experiments since before I was born. I know myself and all of my siblings were concieved using her .. potion." He tried to remember anything- but Aeriell always kept her experiments hidden.
"Well, that's good to know," he said, making a face. "Any documentation on her part about it?"
"Yes.. my mother has a laboratory under the house with all her paperwork- but I was never allowed inside. I've only been in there once." He recalled, crossing his legs at the ankles
"When was that?"
"It's been several hundred years.. Cillian has access to the room, he is the only one my mother trusts." Aiden said slowly, trying to imagine the room. "I know since I was a child, many women would come visit my mother and ask for her potion... to help them. Sometimes, those women get desperate.. the birthrate for our species is so low and mother's had four.."
"I assume they never got it for free," he inserted, tone neutral.
"I never claimed my mother was chivalrous. She sold it to them, of course. Or traded it for favors. Actually, Cillian's wife was a product of my mother's knowledge. She arranged a marriage between my brother when he was still an infant and a woman who mother helped to get pregnant with a girl." Aiden had refused all the women Aeriell set him up with.
"Why am I not surprised?" he muttered darkly, mostly under his breath.
Aiden remained silent for a long moment. "What is it she has proposed ot the King?"
"Mass production and distribution to the populace at large to make up for the breeding derth."
Aiden looked shocked, and whistled. "That.." He seemed a bit speechless. "To.. breed an army? Isn't that a little.. I dunno, Hitler Youth?"
"Hitler didn't breed his. He just fed them propaganda. This would literally be turning our women into breeding stock to push out soldiers at the speed the humans do."
"Would they even be willing to..?" He had to think the Danann women would like to be thought of as more than breeders.
"Depends on how it was marketed to them, I think. Play on their damaged pride and it might go pretty far."
Aiden finished his drink and set it on the table. "Although my m other has perfected for the most part, her potion, she has had failures in the past.."
"I don't doubt it. What kind?"
"Well, for starters, my mother can't have any more children. She.. er.. burnt herself out testing her potions on herself." Aiden frowned, thinking of it. "And I have no proof of this.. but I remember my m other being visited when I was very young.. a woman under her care had died. But .. I don't recall how or why."
He gave Aiden a flat look. "And she's wanting to feed this to other women."
"It works fine now, apparently. Why do you think the birthrate underground has increased so much? This was thousands of years ago." He sighed, rubbing his fingers through his hair.
"Give it some time. I get the feeling we're going to end up with more retardations and barren women in the coming years."
Aiden couldn't help but chuckle. "My brother is strange." Not like he and Aeri were any better, really. Donovan was the only one who didn't show any signs of neurosis... yet.
Dara simply gave another flat look and didn't say anything.
Aiden rubbed his forehead. "Ah, nevermind. I suppose you would like me to get my mother's research?"
"If you think you're capable of doing so."
"I could try. I'm not sure what precautions my mother has... but I need my mother out of the house to be able to attempt to get inside her laboratory. Can you do that?"
"I may. I'll let you know."
"If I die, will you take care of my dog?"
Dara's brow quirked at that.
The other elf laughed, waving a hand dismissively to signify he was only joking (or.. hoped he was).
"On that hopeful note, I should go. Things to plan, I guess."
Aiden stood as Dara did, still chuckling to himself as he led the elf to the door. "Let me know when you are prepared."
"Right," was all he said, ruefully shaking his head as he walked out into the hall with a vague sort of wave cast behind him.
Aiden looked up from kneeling on the floor, a bucket of soapy water beside him. His sister and he had made great progress int he cleaning of the room, but the tile around the stove was covered in soot- and Aiden had taken responsibility of scrubbing the stone tiles clean. With a sigh he pushed himself off the floor, both hands bandaged still. He brushed off his apron, sleeves rolled up to the elbows, and opened the door. "Dara." He had half hoped the man's threat of coming over was unfounded.
"Aiden," the bigger male greeted curtly, and then stepped in with a wicked sucker punch, intent on burying his fist in the other's stomach.
Aiden, never one for battles or fighting, didn't see it coming. Wait, pause that. He DID see it coming, but it was too little too late and the elf found a fist buried into his gut. He felt his breath leave his body in one giant breath, pain shooting up his arms as he stumbled backwards, though the man kept on his feet. He was dazed for a moment but managed to choke. "What.. the fuck-"
"This is quite possibly the most pathetic display of Danaan uselessness I have ever had the misfortune of witnessing in my entire life, soldier," he snarled once he'd slammed the door behind him. That said, he swung his hand in a broad arc to box one of Aiden's ears. "Moping, drinking, hiding from the world and then destroying your own quarters? How is this possibly model behavior from a grown example of the greatest creatures to walk this planet?"
Aiden reeled back away from the punch, backstepping from Dara. Holy shit, the man had gone unhinged. He was speechless for the moment, tripping backwards over the coffee table (Which had been moved from its usual location thanks to aeri cleaning it) and stumbling onto the couch. Aiden's one eye looked a bit frightened of the approaching very angry head of security. Hell, Aiden might have only been 4 inches shorter, but he was half his weight and build. Aiden had always been more a magic user than a soldier.
"You've become a pacifist and a coward, Aiden, and now apparently what little fighting spirit you had left has deserted you. Are you truly as worthless as a wolf without teeth?" the front-line combatant continued to berate, reaching in an attempt to grab the sorcerer up by the collar and hurl him against the nearest wall.
Aiden soon found himself shoved up against the wall, both hands grabbing onto Dara's wrists, his head thumping painfully onto the stone. "We are not fighting a war, Dara." He growled through his gritted teeth, head swimming from the pain, but both hands clenched firmly ot Dara's arms, despite the pain from his previous injury. "I do not wish to return to my old ways." The war had insenced Aiden, having burned and destroyed countless humans with no remorse- that is until it was all over and they haunted him in his sleep and when his mind wasn't occupied or dulled with other substances.
And so began his using Aiden's entire body as a period for each of his declarations, bouncing him against the wall as each sentence was bitten off. "No, you'd rather fade into a snivelling, pathetic ball of shit, incapable of doing more than eventually immolating himself thanks to his utter lack of spine. I might not be a shit-hot magician, but I know damn well it takes authority to command the elements. And what do you have? Nothing. Your mother scorns you, your brother thinks you a fool and your sister walks all over you. Your respectability is falling by the wayside, to the point where anyone who would give a damn would do it out of sentiment and not respect. Did your backbone liquify and drip out of your asshole in your sleep over the past year!?"
Although his head was swimming, his body being slammed up against the wall, and he was quite sure the jarring of his head was giving him a nosebleed, he was getting pissed. With his head cracking against the wall, he was sure the blows were jarring his good sense. Well, good sense be damned at this point. "You know nothing." With two firm hands gripping Dara's arms, fire exploded from them, traveling up Dara's arms and eventually englulfing the whole of his person. "Forgive me, Dara, if I do not want to kill thousands again- if i doubt myself and take in a moment to think of the situation. FORGIVE ME if I take a moment to reflect upon what has happened over this past year. I do not have your conviction, or your irrational thought. I do NOT begin to thinking that I would take it upon myself to destroy thousands of lives for a cause that I do not believe. We differ in opinion, and because I do not want to get involved, it makes me a coward?" The flames only roared, licking the ceiling. So much for all that cleaning. His voice was less than pleased, hissing like the flames surrounding the both of them, fingers burning hotter where they touched the man's garment- the source of the flames. "I do NOT take kindly to your words, Dara." His voice was almost the poison of his mother's.
Dara's response? Cackle like a madman. "That's the spirit," he howled, and then grabbed the other elf up to give a near-bone crushing bear hug. "Notice that smell? The uniform is fire-retardant and I'm coated in a chemical layered on thick that'll burn a while before my flesh does. Now put the fire out before we both cook."
Aiden was in shock as he felt himself switch from being slammed into a wall repeatedly ot being hugged. As quickly as they started, the flames reversed in a surreal rewind motion, sucking back into his body, leaving only the heady smell of smoke and a black stain on the stone ceiling. "Oh Danu, Dara." Was all he could breath. What.. the hell.
Another burst of laughter, and then Aiden was set on his own two feet again. "We can talk politics later. What's more important right now is that your mopy bullshit is making you both a threat and entirely useless to any cause you'd choose to back. Setting fire to your own kitchen is pretty pitiful."
Aiden looked quite dazed as he found himself on his feet. He reached his arm up to smear the blood from his nose onto his white button up. "I certainly didn't except to burn down my own kitchen, Dara." He responded flatly, checking the damage to the back of his head, fingers rubbing over the sore lumps under his hair. He looked a little sullen and still slightly angry.\
"You aren't expecting anything anymore. That's the problem."
Satisfied his head wasn't bleeding, Aiden dropped his hands to his side. "I've had a quite.. numbing past few months." He responded, leaning back against the wall, his head pounding furiously. He reached up and pulled off his eyepatch, flinging it onto the floor as anything on his head was too much at the moment. "I have to admit I've been at a loss of what to do with myself. I fear I've quite lost myself." With a sigh he opened his eyes, pleased for a moment that the room was not spinning anymore. The wolf had dissapeared from his eyes and returned to it's cage and the average, placid Aiden had returned. "Though, I have to admit, I haven't been that angry in ages. Why are you so good at saying exactly what you need to piss me off." A little bite to the last phrase. Maybe the wolf wasn't... entirely locked up.
"Any idea how many potential soldiers I've had to break, rebuild, and train?" he asked blandly. "It's a gift. Anyway, enough of this hermit shit. I'm a workaholic and I get out more often than you do. That's sad."
"Yes. I step outside my room and promptly become irritated at the state of things." He said, pushing off the wall and giving Dara a slight shove. "Get me a bag of ice- it's your fault my head is splitting." Aiden said. "I didn't think you got out- but I suppose since the women have stopped harassing you you have been able to move about freely."
"Something like that," he muttered, wryly and a little darkly whilst actually doing the man a favor and getting him that icepack.
"Something bothering you?" He asked once Dara returned with the ice, placing it on the back of his head before sliding down onto the couch, tilting his head back to rest it against the cushions. He extended his lean legs out tiredly. "I never want to fight with you again." He looked at Dara with his good eye.
"The womenfolk are an irritating lot, is all," he remarked, helping himself to a chair. "I don't plan on beating on you unless you keep this idiotic crap up."
Aiden was about to make a comment about being gay, but then again, men were just as irritating. "And you wonder why I'm a hermit." He mumbled, the ice relieving some of the pain. He closed his eye again and exhaled slowly. "You knew I was going to set you on fire. You... planned this, didn't you?"
"Know thine enemy," he quoted with smirk.
"Bastard." Aiden breathed before sitting up slowly, opening his eyes again. "Are you still straddling the fence?" Referring to the human issue. Aiden wasn't quite sure what to make of all this. Han had approached him on the issue and Aiden got the distinct impression this man and his outspoken nature on the issue would be bad news.
"I made my decision long ago. There are just people that are a hell of a lot more extreme than I am running around. I look neutral by default." He rolled his eyes.
Aiden nodded slowly, though the motion was slightly painful. "I... am not quite sure anymore." Was all he could say. Aiden wasn't always indecisive, but he had grown increasingly neutral lately. While he still had faith in the humans, he was finding it waning every day.
"It's beginning to bother me, though. This politics bullshit, I mean. It's like this campus has managed to draw every last extremist idiot from society for me to babysit."
Aiden set aside the ice bag, leaning forward with his elbows on his thighs, delicate bandaged hands laced together, the fabric charred, spotting blood from overuse. "I've noticed. Very.. vocal extremists." He breathed, pondering. "This campus seems to be the starting ground for conflict. There has been too many dissapearances for my peace of mind."
"It doesn't help that the happy, would-be breeder idiots are publically stomping around and encouraging them," he said with a scowl.
"It.. irritates me how easily the youth seem to be divulging our secrets, from what I can gather." He had to admit, his sister was irresponsible and immature, but regardless of that, she did not go easily and tell every human what exactly she was. The safety of their race was important- very important.
"I've already had to silence three voices. Obnoxiously enough, now I'm just waiting to have to do it again."
Aiden rubbed his fingers over his forehead. The problem of Han was aggrivating- wasn't it clear that by joining him, he could not only get himself killed, but his familly as well? Slowly, the man looked up and turned to Dara. "I fear I won't be able to remain a pacifist for long- both sides are clawing at me now." Although he was more sympathetic to the human plight, he did not like the idea of signing his sister's deathwish.
"So, on the fence we sit. You, me, and the king," he said dryly. "This is starting to be familiar territory."
Aiden laughed softly. "It's become a little pathetic.." He responded. "Though I can't help but think something is about to blow. Have you heard anything from Uriel?" It wasn't like the Dannan to dissapear without a trace and without leaving word to at least one of the lower of the King's staff.
"Not a damned thing," he replied grimly. He'd never really met the boy, and what he knew of him made him want to strangle the little idiot, but sudden disappearances were still cause for worry.
Aiden sighed, running his fingers over his cheek before falling silent, in contemplation. A pause. "Didn't a human dissapear with him as well? I noticed someone remove his belongings from his room..." He leaned his head back, dropping the ice bag back on as he stared up at the dark spot on the ceiling. "I have to admit I am a little unnerved by this, Dara."
"Shot in the dark says it was an extremist assassination, but that's just my cynicism talking."
"Well, all signs point to yes." Aiden said, eyes traveling over his damaged ceiling. The man fell silent for a long time, mind pondering over the clues and the recent events on campus and the surrounding area. "Do you need any help?"
"Not unless you're clairvoyant and not telling me," Dara replied dryly. "The humans were able to stomp around enough to muddy the waters."
The man chuckled. "Then perhaps I can offer you a drink?" Puck, Aiden's hound, peered around from behind the armchair, now that it appeared the fight was over. Fire was not the dog's strong suit. Not that Aiden blamed him, really.
"May as well. Thanks." Absently, he reached down to scratch the dog's head.
Puck dropped to his haunches and wagged his tail, content at the attention. The elf nodded, standing up and moving himself over to the liquor cabinet, which was normally only filled with wine. He pulled out a bottle of scotch and poured two drinks on the rocks, walking back over and setting one down in front of Dara, holding the other himself. "And thank you." For beating some sense into him, but Aiden's pride wasn't about to let him voice the rest of that sentance.
"It's what I'm here for, more or less," the larger elf informed with a smirk, not needing the verbal punctuation to understand it.
Aiden sipped his drink, watching Dara pet his dog. "I wish there was a way I could help you- but ... I am not clairvouyant." He laughed softly.
"To be honest, there's not a lot we can do. Human authorities took everything remotely useful." That got another scowl out of him.
Aiden nodded, running his fingers through his short, dark hair. "I feel at a loss." He responded before lifting the glass to his lips again. Aiden felt he probably should get out more often.. despite Dara's violent tendencies, he rather enjoyed his company.
"It's damned irritating, believe me." With that, he fell silent for a few minutes, lapsing into thought. "Actually, there's something you could help with..."
Aiden looked up from his drink. "Something you have in mind?" He responded as Puck moved from Dara's side to lift his paws onto Aiden's lap, his hand unconciously moving down to pet the animal.
"Your mother recently tried to push some kind of horrendous concoction into the king's good graces, which I shot down on the grounds of the research provided being full of holes. He's forcing me to drop in on her continuing research on the material." He rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I know she'll hear of me coming most of the time before I even get there."
Aiden nodded- but he really didn't like where this was going. Not that he approved of his mother and brother's experiments, but.. his mother wouldn't think twice about killing him- Aiden did not produce offspring and was considered mostly useless.
"What're the odds of you wanting to keep an eye on your family with me?" he asked dryly, expecting the answer to be 'slim.'
Aiden winced. "You realize that is my brother and mother." But he sighed, tilting his head back. "What is it that you're looking for?"
"Any information they're hiding about their project. Evidence they are hiding information."
Aiden breathed softly, rubbing his chin. "My mother has been working on these experiments since before I was born. I know myself and all of my siblings were concieved using her .. potion." He tried to remember anything- but Aeriell always kept her experiments hidden.
"Well, that's good to know," he said, making a face. "Any documentation on her part about it?"
"Yes.. my mother has a laboratory under the house with all her paperwork- but I was never allowed inside. I've only been in there once." He recalled, crossing his legs at the ankles
"When was that?"
"It's been several hundred years.. Cillian has access to the room, he is the only one my mother trusts." Aiden said slowly, trying to imagine the room. "I know since I was a child, many women would come visit my mother and ask for her potion... to help them. Sometimes, those women get desperate.. the birthrate for our species is so low and mother's had four.."
"I assume they never got it for free," he inserted, tone neutral.
"I never claimed my mother was chivalrous. She sold it to them, of course. Or traded it for favors. Actually, Cillian's wife was a product of my mother's knowledge. She arranged a marriage between my brother when he was still an infant and a woman who mother helped to get pregnant with a girl." Aiden had refused all the women Aeriell set him up with.
"Why am I not surprised?" he muttered darkly, mostly under his breath.
Aiden remained silent for a long moment. "What is it she has proposed ot the King?"
"Mass production and distribution to the populace at large to make up for the breeding derth."
Aiden looked shocked, and whistled. "That.." He seemed a bit speechless. "To.. breed an army? Isn't that a little.. I dunno, Hitler Youth?"
"Hitler didn't breed his. He just fed them propaganda. This would literally be turning our women into breeding stock to push out soldiers at the speed the humans do."
"Would they even be willing to..?" He had to think the Danann women would like to be thought of as more than breeders.
"Depends on how it was marketed to them, I think. Play on their damaged pride and it might go pretty far."
Aiden finished his drink and set it on the table. "Although my m other has perfected for the most part, her potion, she has had failures in the past.."
"I don't doubt it. What kind?"
"Well, for starters, my mother can't have any more children. She.. er.. burnt herself out testing her potions on herself." Aiden frowned, thinking of it. "And I have no proof of this.. but I remember my m other being visited when I was very young.. a woman under her care had died. But .. I don't recall how or why."
He gave Aiden a flat look. "And she's wanting to feed this to other women."
"It works fine now, apparently. Why do you think the birthrate underground has increased so much? This was thousands of years ago." He sighed, rubbing his fingers through his hair.
"Give it some time. I get the feeling we're going to end up with more retardations and barren women in the coming years."
Aiden couldn't help but chuckle. "My brother is strange." Not like he and Aeri were any better, really. Donovan was the only one who didn't show any signs of neurosis... yet.
Dara simply gave another flat look and didn't say anything.
Aiden rubbed his forehead. "Ah, nevermind. I suppose you would like me to get my mother's research?"
"If you think you're capable of doing so."
"I could try. I'm not sure what precautions my mother has... but I need my mother out of the house to be able to attempt to get inside her laboratory. Can you do that?"
"I may. I'll let you know."
"If I die, will you take care of my dog?"
Dara's brow quirked at that.
The other elf laughed, waving a hand dismissively to signify he was only joking (or.. hoped he was).
"On that hopeful note, I should go. Things to plan, I guess."
Aiden stood as Dara did, still chuckling to himself as he led the elf to the door. "Let me know when you are prepared."
"Right," was all he said, ruefully shaking his head as he walked out into the hall with a vague sort of wave cast behind him.