doyoulikecake

[Kaden's handwriting is unexpectedly neat -- as in, actually legible. It's still clearly his, but he's made an effort to make it readable. This also occurs after his tag-in to the deathpost, which will be forthcoming.]

I don't know if everyone knows yet, and I regret that, if you didn't, that you had to find out this way.

Iris Fortner is no longer with us. I don't know the particulars of her death.

I'm sorry to all of you. She will be missed.

Also, if anyone knows: will there be a service of any sort? If there is, don't worry about any expenses; I'll cover those. It's not much, but it's the least I can do. If there's anything else anyone needs, don't hesitate to ask. I don't know many of you well, but Iris was a rather large part of my life for the short duration I knew her.


[locked to Mio]

How are you holding up?


[locked to Roxis]

I still have a lot of Iris's things at my apartment. I'd imagine of all the people she knew, you'd be the one these would go to.

Since Iris disappeared, Kaden's been getting more and more unstable. Well, in reality, since Iris moved in, Kaden's been getting more and more unstable, but he hasn't really realized that. Not that he's entirely realized his instability at the moment, either, even though he hasn't come out of his study in days, except to go to the bathroom and, on occasion, get something to eat out of the fridge. Sometimes Lily leaves him food, as well, that he grabs while she's sleeping outside his study door and wolfs down in front of his computer, door safely locked again.

He has to figure out where he went wrong. Why she left. It was easy to figure out with Marena, but that had been an accident, a small misstep of his that he knew he hadn't repeated with Iris. He has notebooks and notebooks full of notes, but he doesn't have all the data. He can't have all the data, because there's absolutely no reason that one session would make everything go so downhill. Only one time in which he was ultimately culpable, and she didn't even think it was him in the moment, much less afterward.

He doesn't actually know how long he's been in the study. It's hard to remember when he started all of this. He hasn't gone to class in awhile -- though he did email his professors at one point and feed them some bullshit excuse he can't remember -- and he's been working from home. Biosys hasn't given him any projects recently, so he's just been finishing write-ups and doing data analysis from other experiments -- all of which he can do on his work laptop anyway. So he's been free to hole up in his study all he wants. He'll figure this out. He's sure he's just on the verge of it, and has been for days.

[OOC: After numerous journal entries locked to her that received no reply (which I am sure y'all do not want to see spammed out on your flists :P) and unanswered phone calls/texts]

Iris:

If you don't respond to this, I'm cutting off our bond in the assumption you no longer have any investment in our friendship. Please at least talk to me? :(

Kaden hasn't slept for three days. He might not have considered this weird, except it's barely been a week since his birthday. A week and a half. The past three days feel like a blur. The past month kind of feels like a blur, between his family and the Calling -- he held out too long. That must have been it; he held out until his birthday, after Christmas, and then he didn't let himself sleep it off. He didn't fix the sleep debt. Of course it's come back so soon.

He's waiting in a clean white room, one of the lower labs in Biosys. It's rare that he brings his personal projects to work with him, but he didn't want Iris to recognize the apartment. He didn't want her anywhere she would recognize. She's lying face down on a table, unconscious, a machine keeping track of her vitals next to the hospital bed she's strapped to. It's really more institutional than anything, but he needs her to be unable to fight, and so many people are able to fight through paralytics. He has no idea how her Wanderer body chemistry will react to them, anyway; she deals with weird chemicals on a daily basis.

Next to the bed is a metal table, rolled close but not too close; there's a body's worth of space between it and the bed. On it is his present from Santa, laid out neatly. The surgical tools shine in the fluorescent lights of the lab. His fingers are literally itching to use them.

Instead, he checks his watch. She should be coming to at any point now. The drug he slipped her wasn't a strong one, just enough to knock her out so he could take her here, put her in this setup. He's checked and double-checked it, and now there's nothing left to do but wait. He's wondering how long he can stand to wait before he has to make her wake up; the Calling's already burning through his body, he's jittery and unable to keep still. His wings twitch and flare outward against the walls as he paces the room in his surgeon's mask, apron, his sleeves rolled up and his hair tied back. There's an accompanying surge of pins and needles down his arms to his hands, encased in black latex gloves; he grimaces, then walks over to play with the tools on the table.

His perception is tunneling, thinking only of Iris on the table, of what he's going to do, of the many things he can do before going for home, and how long he'll hold out before he can't stand the pain any longer, before he has to stop. He doesn't quite realize he's whispering softly, mostly to himself.

«Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.»

[locked to Mio]

Are you still up for coffee? I just got back into town, but I figure we might as well take advantage of the relative openness of my schedule while we can, given that I'm sure it'll clog back up in about two days or so. :)

[locked to Iris, shortly after Roxis's journal entry.]

Not biting the alchemist bait, kiddo?

Seeing as the Fuchizaki "household" (oh yeah, and Molly) are going to be leaving soon for the Christmas Family Reunion in Japan (with a small detour through California), Kaden's taken it on himself to play Santa early, for everyone he knows. Not that he's planning on personally delivering all of these gifts, of course -- most of them he's planned just so, so the recipients won't be there when he drops them off. But it's the thought that counts, right?


( For Mio... )


( For Sunshine... )


( For Marena... )


( For Elizabeth... )


( For Ran... )


( For Ash... )


As for Lily and Iris's presents, those have been slowly accumulating in the living room of their apartment. There's significantly more for Lily than Iris, but then, Kaden's had a lot more time to shop for her. And has a tendency to spoil her a lot more, because he loves her. But there are at least three for Iris, one of a relatively good size. All of them are piled next to the entertainment center in the living room (it's...nothing like a tree, but it's the most central-yet-out-of-the-way location in the apartment). They'll open those before they leave. He's been watching to make sure they don't peek at them, either.

Hey kid. Figured I'd give you a heads-up: we're doing Christmas in Japan this year, so you'll probably want to come with. I'll pay for your tickets, don't worry.

[OOC: If you aren't following the Robot Unicorn Attack plot (aka The Fuchizakis Totally Fuck Up Iris's Shit plot), this isn't relevant to much. This is fallout from these threads that ultimately culmiated in this comment.]

( Anything that may desert you, so it cannot hurt you )

[locked to Molly]

Quit breaking my toys, will you? :P


[locked to Lily]

[in Japanese] I have a couple surprises for you. I miss you, kiddo.